Nineteenth Ce ntury

The Magazine of in America Volume 37 Number 1 Nineteenth Century hhh

THE MAGAZINE OF THE VICTORIAN SOCIETY IN AMERICA

VOLuMe 37 • NuMBer 1 SPRING 2017

Editor Contents Warren Ashworth Consulting Editor Sara Chapman Bull’s Teakwood Rooms William Ayres A LOST LETTER REVEALS A CURIOUS COMMISSION Book Review Editor FOR LOCkwOOD DE FOREST 2 Karen Zukowski Roberta A. Mayer and Susan Condrick Managing Editor / Graphic Designer Wendy Midgett Frank Furness Printed by Official Offset Corp. PERPETUAL MOTION AND “THE CAPTAIN’S TROUSERS” 10 Amityville, Michael J. Lewis Committee on Publications Chair Warren Ashworth Hart’s Parish Churches William Ayres NOTES ON AN OVERLOOkED AUTHOR & ARCHITECT Anne-Taylor Cahill OF THE GOTHIC REVIVAL ERA 16 Christopher Forbes Sally Buchanan Kinsey John H. Carnahan and James F. O’Gorman Michael J. Lewis Barbara J. Mitnick Jaclyn Spainhour William Noland Karen Zukowski THE MAkING OF A VIRGINIA ARCHITECT 24 Christopher V. Novelli For information on The Victorian Society in America, contact the national office:

1636 Sansom Street , PA 19103 (215) 636-9872 Fax (215) 636-9873 [email protected] Departments www.victoriansociety.org 38 Preservation Diary THE REGILDING OF SAINT-GAUDENS’ DIANA Cynthia Haveson Veloric

42 The Bibliophilist 46 Editorial 49 Contributors Jo Anne Warren Richard Guy Wilson 47 Milestones Karen Zukowski A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS Anne-Taylor Cahill

Cover: Interior of richmond City Hall, richmond, Virginia. Library of Congress. Lockwood de Forest’s showroom at 9 East Seventeenth Street, New York, c. 1885. (Photo is reversed to show correct signature and date on painting seen in the overmantel). Published in de Forest’s Indian Domestic Architecture. Sara Chapman Bull’s Teakwood Rooms

A LOST LETTER REVEALS A CURIOUS COMMISSION FOR LOCkwOOD DE FOREST

Roberta A. Mayer and Susan Condrick

On January 13, 1888, Lockwood de Forest sent Mrs. Ole Bull Church in Boston, he moved his office to the suburb of –Sara Chapman Bull (née Thorp) –a letter providing a rough Brookline. According to de Forest, Richardson was one of the estimate of $1,025.50 for hand-carved teakwood moldings, few professional architects who took an interest in his Indian brackets, panels, and a mantel, along with a preliminary woodwork. 6 sketch for the installation. 1 At that time, Sara was working The archival business records and ledgers for de Forest are with architect Arthur Little in designing a new Colonial incomplete, and until now no surviving commissions had been Revival house at 168 Brattle Street in Cambridge, found in Boston or its environs. Yet, we know that de Forest Massachusetts. De Forest was an artistic decorator and had many ties to the Boston area other than Richardson. The purveyor of “East Indian Furniture, Metal work, Carved Stone primary lease for the building at 9 East Seventeenth Street was & wood for Architectural Use.” 2 The recent discovery of this held by J. G. and J. F. Low Art Tile works, based in Chelsea, letter provides firm evidence of a previously unknown and Massachusetts, a northern suburb of Boston. 7 In New York, somewhat unusual commission for de Forest –the interiors of this firm used the ground floor for their showrooms. Their two adjacent Colonial Revival rooms that were intended to agent, Caryl Coleman, managed the New York branch and accommodate musical concerts, thought-provoking symposia, helped de Forest with publicity. 8 Coleman was also the New and still create a comfortable place for an intimate fireside chat. Together, these have always been known as the “teakwood rooms.” De Forest’s patrons were typically the elite of America’s . He began his professional decorating career in partnership with Louis C. Tiffany in the firm of Tiffany & De Forest. 3 After that business dissolved, de Forest operated independently at 9 East Seventeenth Street in , a sublease of four rooms that began on May 1, 1883. Views of de Forest’s showrooms reveal the richly carved teakwood furnishings that were his specialty. Through the 1880s and thereafter, de Forest provided designs and materials for projects across the , and from the beginning, his clients were attracted to the exoticism these decorations displayed. Some of the most notable examples were the Tiffany family mansion at 27 East Seventy-Second Street in New York City, the home of painter in Hudson, New York, known as “Olana,” the Nob Hill mansion of , the Baltimore house of Elizabeth Mary Garrett, and the Chicago L to R: Interior of the Mary Garrett House, Baltimore, as published in Art and Archaeology , residences of the Potter Palmers and June 1925. Courtesy Hiram woodward. Teak side chair, designed by Lockwood de Forest (1850- Franklin MacVeagh. 4 1932), c. 1881 and purchased by Mary Garrett for her home in Baltimore. The Metropolitan De Forest worked on the MacVeagh Museum of Art. house in 1886, which was the last project of Henry Hobson York agent for the Smith & Anthony Stove Company of Richardson, one of the most prominent American architects of Boston, which manufactured de Forest’s designs for cast iron the day. 5 Richardson had been based in New York, but in 1878 fireplace linings (an example of which is visible in Garrett’s when he began the now famous Romanesque-Revival Trinity hearth). 9

3 In addition to his decorating network, de Forest had Ole Bull returned to America in January 1852, the same publishing ties to Boston. In 1885, the Heliotype Printing year that P. T. was promoting the concerts of the Company at 211 Tremont Street printed his first self-published “Swedish Nightingale,” . 20 Again, he toured book, Indian Domestic Architecture .10 Then in 1887, the extensively, not returning to Europe until 1857. During this Boston firm of George H. Polley & Co. published de Forest’s period, he purchased 11,144 acres of wooded land near second book, titled Indian Architecture and Ornament . Years Coudersport, Pennsylvania, with the idealistic and somewhat later, in 1901, de Forest became a member of the Society of impulsive intent of founding a new colony for Norwegians. 21 Arts and Crafts in Boston. 11 About a decade after that, he wrote The venture included the planning of four communities –New articles for their magazine, Handicraft .12 Bergen, New Norway, Oleana, and Valhalla, where Ole Bull Despite the publicity, the professional architectural started to build a “castle” (which burned in 1923). In the end, community in Boston did not seem to be receptive to de the project was a failure, but it only added to Ole Bull’s Forest’s work. when Indian Domestic Architecture first personal mythology (today it is the site of Ole Bull State Park). appeared, the Boston-based American Architect and Building Ole Bull’s third trip to America was in 1867. He was then a News criticized de Forest’s taste as an impractical and dust- widower, his wife, Alexandrine Félicie Villeminot, having died in 1862. Although there were many return trips to Norway, this marked the last phase of his concert life, with the majority of his performances scheduled in the United States. He reconnected with his many American friends as well. 22 In March 1870, Ole Bull arrived for a concert in Madison, wisconsin, and was a guest of Joseph Gilbert Thorp, a wisconsin state senator whose livelihood came from a lumber business in Eau Claire. 23 At that time, Ole met Thorp’s daughter, Sara, and began to court her. Joseph Thorp had serious and understandable reservations about his daughter’s much older suitor, but Sara’s mother, [Susan] Amelia Chapman Thorp was eager to stoke the flames of romance. Sara was beautiful, charming, and musically talented, and Ole Bull was an enormously charismatic and available celebrity. In Amelia’s view, the matchmaking had the potential to bolster L to R: Sara Chapman Bull and her husband, Ole Bull. the family’s social status well beyond wisconsin. By June of that year, Ole and Sara were secretly wed; they were later collecting fad. The reviewer went on to suggest that de Forest publicly wed with great fanfare. In some circles, the “May- was taking advantage of cheap labor and that the stated aim of December” marriage was simply scandalous, and Joseph craft preservation was not convincing. 13 with the publication Thorp was not pleased. Several years of family quarrels of Indian Architecture and Ornament , another unenthusiastic ensued, even after Ole and Sara had a daughter. The internal review appeared in the American Architect and Building family discord was so unpleasant that Ole left for a time. News , with the continued assertion that Indian architecture when Ole and Sara were separated in the summer of 1872, did not belong in the United States. 14 he bought the Norwegian island of Lysøen and began working It is against this backdrop that we return to Lockwood de with architect Conrad Fredrik van de Lippe on a fanciful Forest and Mrs. Ole Bull. De Forest’s estimate for Sara was summerhouse that he called the “little Alhambra.” 24 drafted in 1888, as he was preparing to move his business to Completed in 1873, it was a remarkable blend of vernacular an exotic new townhouse at 7 East Tenth Street. This New Norwegian country architecture with an array of eclectic York City landmark would soon be known as the “most Indian Moorish details crafted in wood. The overall effect was much house in America.” 15 in the spirit of “Iranistan,” the mansion in Bridgeport, At that time, Sara was thirty-eight years old, and she had Connecticut, that P. T. Barnum had commissioned from been a widow for nearly a decade. 16 Her husband, forty-years in 1848. On the inside of Ole’s villa was a sixty- her senior, had been Ole Bull, the internationally famous and foot music room embellished with lacy horseshoe arches that peripatetic Norwegian violinist. 17 His first trip to America were supported by twisted and knotted columns –all executed began in New York in 1843, and it was a dazzling success. Even in natural pine. This warm space was lit with Bohemian glass P. T. Barnum capitalized on the extraordinary popularity of chandeliers that reflected from tall mirrors. After Ole and Sara the Norwegian musician by renaming one of the children in reunited in 1875, the villa at Lysøen became their summer his act Ole Bull, Jr. 18 Beginning in 1844, Ole Bull traveled retreat. constantly; he had performances in Cuba, Canada, and whether Sara was interested in architecture before she met throughout the United States. By the time he returned to Ole is hard to say, but with her lumber baron father, she may Europe in December 1845, he had traversed some 100,000 have had some sense of the building industry. Moreover, her miles and performed over 200 concerts. His stops included overseas travels eventually included Norway, the French Boston and nearby Cambridge, where the local intellectuals Mediterranean coast, Italy, Holland, Germany, Belgium, and and social elite immediately embraced him; there, for Austria. As a result, she was no doubt familiar with various example, he met the poet Henry wadsworth Longfellow, then architectural styles. However, she may have come to realize in residence at what is now the Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow that the process of building could be a creative and even house at 105 Brattle Street. 19 magical endeavor when she first saw Ole’s villa at Lysøen.

4 Music Room from Ole Bull’s villa, Lysøen, Norway. Photo by Dag Fosse

Once back together, the Bulls also spent considerable time The Clemenses’ house was then on Farmington Avenue in in Cambridge and Boston. During the winter of 1876-77, they Hartford, Connecticut. Resting upon a brownstone lived at the Tremont House in Boston. They enjoyed foundation, it was a brick building with bold geometric Thanksgiving in Cambridge at the home of Professor Eben patterns painted in vermilion and black that had begun in Norton Horsford, a chemist and an ardent supporter of higher 1873 under the direction of New York architect Edward education for women. Like Ole, he was also an enthusiast of Tuckerman Potter. 27 It had many wooden gables and porches, the claim that Leif Ericson, as a Norse Viking, had discovered creating a sense of picturesque irregularity. For the family, America centuries before Christopher Columbus. For there was a drawing room, dining room, library, and Christmas, the Bulls went to the home of poet and Harvard conservatory, as well as six bedrooms. The billiard room was professor Henry wadsworth Longfellow at 105 Brattle Street. on the third floor. A separate kitchen wing faced north, On New Year’s Eve, they were guests of James T. Fields, editor directly towards the main street and provided most of the of the Atlantic Monthly and a decades-long friend of Ole. In servant’s quarters. As noted by Clemens’ biographer Albert other words, they were comfortable and well liked in this Bigelow Paine: intellectual community. Deeper roots to Cambridge began to As was unlike any other man that ever lived, grow in 1879, when Sara’s brother, Joseph Thorp, Jr. entered so his house was unlike any other house ever built. Harvard Law School. The Thorp family then rented a colonial People asked him why he built the kitchen toward the house known as “Elmwood” (now the official residence of street, and he said: “So the servants can see the circus go Harvard University presidents). 25 by without running out into the front yard.” 28 In April of 1880, Sara and Ole were introduced to Sam and Olivia “Livy” Clemens at a luncheon party hosted by the Fields. Interestingly, it was Livy who did not want the main The occasion was well captured in one of Clemens’ letters: entrance of Hartford house to face the street, and it was actually Potter who suggested that the service wing face well, what a good time we had at old Mr. Fields’. And Farmington Avenue. That way, he could design the house with what loveable people the Bulls are both of them. Did you both scenic views and a sense of privacy. 29 As we shall see, Sara notice her dress? what a piece of perfection that was. And what a master-hand she is with a piano. And if Ole later adopted this curious orientation for the servant’s wing of Bull had been born without arms, what a rank he would her own house. have taken among the poets because it is in him, & if he It is easy to imagine that the subject of building a house couldn’t violin it out, he would talk it out...It would be came up at the Fields’ luncheon, with Ole Bull describing his lovely if they would come and visit us. 26 villa at Lysøen and the Clemens sharing tidbits related to their ongoing design efforts. Likewise, the subject of decorating

5 could have been a topic, and it is quite possible that Tiffany’s expanded). 33 It is certainly tempting to speculate that the idea name came up since he was beginning to attract a lot of for this odd orientation came from Sam and Livy Clemens. attention for his artistic interiors. In 1881, the Clemens did The entrance, located at the rear of the house, faces the hire the New York firm of Louis C. Tiffany & Co., Associated Charles River and signals a desire for privacy. Overall, it was a Artists, to paint and/or paper the entire first floor, along with highly imaginative expression of Colonial Revival taste. with the second and third floor halls. Tiffany also remodeled the its strongly asymmetrical massing, multiple balconies, and dining room chimneypiece using his patented glass tiles to irregular arrangement of a variety of window designs, the great effect. 30 house seems to have been conceived as an intentional The Bulls, however, did not have a chance to visit the counterpoint to the nearby Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow house Clemens. On August 17, 1880, Ole Bull passed away with Sara of 1759, which was a perfect example of high-style, beside him at the villa at Lysøen. A vivid chapter of her life had symmetrical Georgian architecture. Sara’s house is also a

Formal entrance of 168 Brattle Street. Photo by Jeffrey Dodge Rogers. Gibson/Sotheby’s International Realty. ended, and she would never again marry. Yet there were three notable departure from the more traditional Colonial Revival more extraordinary decades still to come, and by the end of house that her brother, Joseph Gilbert Thorp, Jr., and his wife, the 1880s, she began work with architect Arthur Little in Anne Allegra Longfellow, built nearby at 115 Brattle Street in designing and building her new home at 168 Brattle Street. 1887 with architect Alexander wadsworth Longfellow, Jr. In Joseph G. Thorp financed Sara’s project, but his business other words, the exterior of Sara’s house eschewed tradition, interests often kept him in wisconsin. Sara, therefore, was the evoked curiosity, demanded attention, and yet maintained a primary client, and the house was part of her inheritance. strong sense of seclusion. Arthur Little had trained at the Massachusetts Institute of On the inside, the home was warm, welcoming, and Technology, which in 1865 was the first university in America decidedly eclectic in its interior architecture. The entrance to offer a curriculum in architecture; he then apprenticed at opened to an intimate vestibule and a short staircase to a the firm of Peabody and Sterns. 31 In 1877, Little published narrow hall. From there, the entire first floor flowed from one Early New Interiors , and by 1879 he opened his own room to the next –music room, living room (with an intimate office in Boston. Described by Bainbridge Bunting as “talented “poet’s corner”), dining room, and Norwegian room –a plan but erratic,” Little’s signature style was the Colonial Revival, designed for entertaining. Each room had a unique aesthetic an approach to domestic architecture that blended the sensibility with a variety of motifs and ideas drawn from the English, picturesque “Queen Anne” style of Richard Norman Colonial and Federal periods. The clear, leaded-glass windows Shaw with design elements found in seventeenth- and also differed in pattern and scale from room to room. eighteenth-century American architecture. 32 Little’s original rendering of the interior architectural As built, the Brattle Street house was sheathed in painted embellishments of the living and music rooms included a clapboard and embellished with an assemblage of stately, transom of square panes of glass, below which were short and classical details. It stands with its back to the street, giving the fluted Doric columns, turned balusters, and fielded passerby a view of the servant’s wing (which was later paneling –all typical Colonial designs. 34 Likewise, the double

6 doors to the dining room were to be surmounted by a large Indian teakwood that Sara wanted. De Forest’s elaborately broken pediment with an urn finial. The living room pierced-carved traceries, which were derived from patterns mantelshelf above the hearth was initially designed with two that appeared in the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Islamic panels of delicate Adamesque swags. Because we have Arthur mosques and tombs of , were integrated into the Little’s original renderings, it is clear that the music and living double doors leading to the music room –and these traceries rooms were not envisioned as “Indian rooms.” are typical of de Forest’s offerings. At some point, Sara rejected Little’s ideas for the living and At the same time, without the proof of de Forest’s letter, it music rooms, and by early January 1888, she had turned to would be hard to discern that the other teakwood elements Lockwood de Forest for help. with only one known letter from came from him because the carved patterns are quite unusual. de Forest, it is hard to know precisely why she wanted to use In both the brackets and the moldings, the highly naturalistic his carved East Indian teakwood in her Colonial Revival and organic vegetal patterns are embellished with flat bands, house, but there are possibilities to consider. Perhaps Sara’s interest was piqued by the decoration of the Clemenses’ house. After de Forest’s return from India, Sam Clemens added perforated brass and carved teakwood panels to an existing mantel in the entrance hall. Then, in 1882, Sara published Ole Bull: A Memoir .35 As noted by Probir k. Bondyopadhyay and Suchanda Banerjee, she included Ole’s essay, “The Origin of the Violin,” in the appendix, and here Ole suggested that India was the place of origin for bow instruments. 36 The Indian woodwork, therefore, may have been homage to Ole’s musical roots. At the same time, by 1887, Sara had also become interested in Indian philosophy and had begun to study the Bhagavad Gita .37 After her teakwood rooms were completed, they remained appropriate for the next phase of her life, which after 1894 was marked by her deep commitment to Swami Vivekananda and his teachings on Vedanta philosophy. As the house designs continued to evolve, the concept for the living and music rooms shifted from eighteenth-century classicism to seventeenth-century mannerism with Indian overtones. In this way, the house retained its Colonial Revival spirit as originally envisioned by Little, but now also had the

Above: Letter from Lockwood de Forest to Mrs. Ole Bull with an Top to bottom: Detail of fireplace decoration, bracket and beam, and estimate and sketching for moldings, brackets, panels and a mantel. view of the living room at 168 Brattle Street. Photos by Jeffrey Dodge January 13, 1888. Courtesy Ambassador Swanee Hunt. Rogers. Gibson/Sotheby’s International Realty.

7 Pierced-carved traceries for double doors leading to the music room. Photo by authors. ribbons, and swirls that are not found in East Indian designs. Sara had many friends, but she is best known for her close Aside from the traceries used for the double doors, it appears relationship with Swami Vivekananda, who first came to the that the rest of the teakwood carvings supplied for the house United States in 1893 to lecture at the world Parliament of were hand-carved in India as custom work and not simply Religions in Chicago. Vivekananda introduced Hinduism, selected from de Forest’s available stock. For example, the flat yoga, and meditation to Americans, though his larger message swirls seen in the carved teak brackets were seemingly meant was that all religions were equal. Sara met Vivekananda in to match a motif used on the exterior brackets of the house. 1894, and, at his invitation, her first trip to India was in 1898, The carved teakwood moldings then also included flat bands arriving in Bombay (today ) and traveling by train to and ribbons as a unifying design element. Calcutta (kolkata). 40 This led to her tireless work in India as an More of de Forest’s woodwork is evident in the impressive advocate for women’s education. There she also met and chimneypiece surrounding the hearth. The exterior of the befriended Jagadish Chandra Bose, a brilliant Bengali hearth (later painted blue) includes three tiles that appear to scientist and professor who had trained in and had be similar to those of Ali Mohammad Isfahani, the Persian wide ranging interests in radio-physics and plant biology. 41 In potter and tile maker whose work was used in the studio wing 1901, she became an angel investor in his work, helping Bose mantelpiece that de Forest provided for Olana. The firebox secure American and British patents in wireless electronics portion of the hearth is not painted, and interestingly, it was technology. 42 Then, in 1902, she had the opportunity to meet constructed from yellow speckled bricks. These recall the Mahatma Gandhi, an indication of the importance of her “Tiffany bricks” that Stanford white formulated and used in work. 43 In India, she is still remembered as “Saint Sara.” the construction of the Tiffany family mansion in New York Today de Forest’s contribution to the history of American City, completed in 1885. decorative arts is widely recognized, and his work is Yet all of de Forest’s contributions to the music and living represented in museums across the country, including the rooms are compatible with the idea of a rich, dark, and vaguely Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. 44 Certainly, de Forest had Jacobean hall. The heavy, exposed beams help create that other patrons in the Boston area, and in later years, de Forest’s effect, and, in fact, de Forest’s Indian columns were used as decedents had ties to Cambridge. His son, Alfred Victor de split spindles and mounted upside down! In addition to de Forest, joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Forest’s teakwood, there are also simpler chip-carved designs Technology in 1934. 45 His grandson by marriage, Dr. Ernest H. (not furnished by de Forest) that are typical of seventeenth- Taves, was a Cambridge-based psychoanalyst and author. century “Pilgrim” furniture. Nonetheless, Sara’s house at 168 Brattle Street currently Later in the 1890s Sara used the house at 168 Brattle Street stands as de Forest’s only identified commission in the Boston to host the well-known “Cambridge Conferences,” and the area. teakwood rooms provided a place for many luminaries of the day to gather together. 38 Her guests included philosopher and psychologist william James, social activist Jane Addams, poet and author Julia ward Howe, and young Radcliffe student Gertrude Stein. 39 h

8 Notes 17. For biographical information on Ole Bull, see Mortimer Smith, The Life of Ole Bull (Princeton: Press, 1947). 1. The whereabouts of the original letter is currently unknown, but 18. Ibid., 51. Susan Condrick discovered a photocopy in the files for the 19. Ibid., 61. property at 168 Brattle Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Our 20. Ibid., 96-97. thanks to Ambassador Swanee Hunt for sharing this document. 21. Norman B. Wilkinson, robert K. Currin, and Patrick A. Kennedy, 2. Trade card, Taves Family Collection. “Ole Bull’s New Norway,” Historic Pennsylvania Leaflet no. 14 3. See roberta A. Mayer and Carolyn K. Lane, “Disassociating the (1995): 1-4. ‘Associated Artists’: The early Business Ventures of Louis C. 22. Smith, 154. Tiffany, Candace T. Wheeler, and Lockwood de Forest,” Studies in 23. Ibid., Chapters 9-10, passim. the Decorative Arts 8 no. 1 (Spring-Summer 2001): 2-36. Before 24. elizabeth Gaynor, “Ole Bull’s Little Alhambra,” Scandinavian both his partnership with Tiffany and his first trip to India, de Review (Spring 1995): 48-53; elizabeth Gaynor, “Ole Bull's Little Forest’s earliest known decorating project was the 1878 Alhambra: the Virtuoso Musician Composes a Moorish Fantasy in renovation of his parent’s parlor in the Aesthetic style as Norway,” Architectural Digest 49, no.12 (December 1992): 148- documented in Walter Launt Palmer’s painting, De Forest Interior , [153], 192. 1878, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1982.46. 25. Smith, 199-201. 4. See roberta A. Mayer, Lockwood de Forest: Furnishing the Gilded 26. Ibid., 203-4. Age with a Passion for India (Newark, Delaware: university of 27. Sarah Bradford Landau, Edward T. and William A. Potter: Delaware Press, 2008). American Victorian Architects (New York: Garland Publishing, 5. Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, H. H. Richardson: Complete Architectural 1979), 34-9, 41. Works (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of 28. Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark Twain: A Biography , vol. 2 (New York: Technology, 1982), 391-93. & Brothers, 1912), 521. 6. Lockwood de Forest, “Indian Domestic Architecture,” [1919] MS. 29. Landau, 42-43. Lockwood de Forest Papers, Archives of American Art, 30. For information on the restoration of the , see Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., microfilm roll no. 2732, Wilson H. Faude, The Renaissance of Mark Twain’s House frame 1265. (Larchmont, New York: Queens House, 1978). 7. See Doreen Bolger Burke, et al., In Pursuit of Beauty: Americans 31. See Walter Knight Sturges, “Arthur Little and the Colonial and the Aesthetic Movement (New York: Metropolitan Museum of revival,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 32, no. Art, 1986), 449-50. J. and J. G. Low Art Tile Works was founded in 2 (May 1973): 147-163. 1877 in Chelsea, Massachusetts. After 1883, J. G. and J. F. Low 32. Bainbridge Bunting, “Brattle Street: A resume of American operated the firm. residential Architecture, 1673-1973,” Cambridge Historical 8. Caryl Coleman was the brother of painter Charles Caryl Coleman, Society: 49. Accessed August 10, 2016, one of the many American artists who worked in rome during the www.cambridgehistory.org/content/brattle-street-resume- late-nineteenth century. american-residential-architecture-1673-1973 9. “Celebrated De Forrest [sic] Collection,” Some Artistic Fire Places 33. The servant’s wing was expanded to the third floor by the firm of and Their Surroundings (Boston: Smith & Anthony Stove Co., Little & Brown between 1907 and 1911. Permits filed with 1885). Inspectional Services Department, City of Cambridge, 831 10. Incidentally, there is an undated entry in one of de Forest’s early Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts. account books for “Miss Lee Studio Building Boston;” the Studio 34. Single-family residence for J. G. Thorp, Cambridge, Mass., 1889, Building was also located on Tremont Street. Account book, Arthur Little and Herbert W. C. Browne Architectural Collection, Lockwood de Forest Papers, Archives of American Art, microfilm Historic New england. 2733, frame 609. 35. Sara C. Bull, Ole Bull: A Memoir (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1882, 11. Karen evans Úlehla, The Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston: 1897), 348-50. Exhibition Record, 1897-1927 (Boston: Boston Public Library, 36. Probir K. Bondyopadhyay and Suchanda Banerjee, “Two 1981), 67. recently Discovered Patents of Professor Jagadis Chunder Bose 12. Lockwood de Forest, “Suggestions on Industrial education,” and India’s First electronics Technology Transfer to the West,” Handicraft 3, no. 1 (April 1910): 1-8; Lockwood de Forest, “Wood Indian Journal of History of Science 43 no. 1 (2008): 57-72. Carving in India,” Handicraft 3, no. 7 (October 1910): 232-40. Accessed January 3, 2017, 13. “Books,” American Architect and Building News 18, no. 507 www.insa.nic.in/writereaddata/upLoadedFiles/IJHS (Sept. 12, 1885): 127-8. /Vol43_1_4_PKBondyopadhyay.pdf 14. “Books and Papers,” American Architect and Building News 21 37. Prabuddhaprana, 63. no. 594 (May 14, 1887): 237-38. 38. Mrs. Ole Bull, “The Cambridge Conference,” New Outlook 56 15. William Henry Shelton, “The Most Indian House in America,” (August 1897): 845-49. House Beautiful 8, no. 1 (June 1900): 419; The house at 7 east 39. Smith, 168. Tenth Street is presently the edgar M. Bronfman Center for 40. Prabuddhaprana, 256-59. Jewish Student Life at . 41. Ibid., 264-65. 16. For biographical information on Sara Chapman Bull, see 42. See Bondyopadhyay and Banerjee. Pravrajika Prabuddhaprana, Saint Sara: The Life of Sara Chapman 43. Prabuddhaprana, 407. Bull, the American Mother of Swami Vivekananda (Calcutta: Sri 44. Side chair, ca. 1885, 2014.462, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Sarada Math, 2002); Jacqueline Brady, “Wise Mother? Insane Accessed August 15, 2016, Mother? Sara Chapman Bull and the Disarticulated Subjectivities www.mfa.org/collections/object/side-chair-591781 of Turn-of-the-Century Motherhouse,” chapter in Catalina 45. “Memorial resolutions: Alfred Victor de Forest,” Welding Florina Florescu, ed., Disjointed Perspectives on Motherhood Journal 24 (1945): 746. (Plymouth, : Lexington Books, 2013).

9 Bloomfield H. Moore house, after alterations of 1895. Published in King’s Views of Philadelphia , 1900.

10 Frank Furness

PERPETUAL MOTION AND “THE CAPTAIN’S TROUSERS”

Michael J. Lewis

One of architecture’s great mysteries is the Bloomfield Moore As the smoke blew away he said: “Of course you don’t house at 510 South Broad Street in Philadelphia, the know anything and are full of damnable conceit.” remarkable building that propelled sixteen-year old into the office of Frank Furness. Half a century later we have enough accounts of Furness’s imaginative use of (1924), when he wrote his Autobiography of an Idea , Sullivan profanity to know that Sullivan had been given the full-bore remembered the encounter vividly –although he couched it in treatment. But he did not wilt under the tirade and when his strange third-person voice: Furness finally asked “what in hell had brought him there, anyway?” Sullivan saw his big chance: Once settled down in the large quiet village [i.e., Philadelphia], he began to roam the streets, looking This was the opening for which Louis had sagaciously quizzically at buildings as he wandered. On the west side been waiting through the storm. He told Frank Furness of South Broad street a residence, almost completed, all about his unaided discovery of the dwelling on Broad caught his eye like a flower by the roadside. He street, how he had followed, so to speak from the nugget approached, examined it with curious care, without and to the solid vein; that here he was and here he would within. Here was something fresh and fair to him, a remain; he had made up his mind as to that, and he human note, as though someone were talking. He looked Frank Furness in the eye. Then he sang a song of inquired as to the architect and was told: Furness & praise like a youthful bard of old to his liege lord, Hewitt. Now, he saw plainly enough that this was not the steering clear of too gross adulation, placing all on a high work of two men but of one, for he had an instinctive plane of accomplishment. It was here, Louis said, one sense of physiognomy, and all buildings thus made their could really learn. direct appeal to him, pleasant or unpleasant. He made The rest is history: Sullivan talked his way into a one-week up his mind that next day he would enter the employ of said Furness & Hewitt, they to have no voice in the trial and was subsequently hired as junior draftsman. He matter, for his mind was made up. 1 remained with Furness & Hewitt throughout the summer and would have remained longer had not the Panic of 1873 forced That “flower by the roadside” was the Bloomfield Moore them to cut the payroll. 3 All this was set into motion by one house, and it was Sullivan’s tour of the house that won him a sixteen-year-old’s fateful stroll down Broad Street. position in Furness’s office. 2 In fact, had he not been able to But what was it about the Moore House that captivated discuss the house intelligently, it is very likely he would not Sullivan? No one knows. As thrilling as it was in 1873, it was have been hired because the interview got off to a very bad deeply unfashionable in 1895, when its new owner had it start: reconfigured as a French chateau. 4 Later it came into the So next day he presented himself to Frank Furness and possession of the brilliant art collector John G. Johnson, upon informed him he had come to enter his employ. Frank whose death in 1917 both house and collection were given to Furness was a curious character. He affected the English the city –on condition they remain together. Philadelphia in fashion. He wore loud plaids, and a scowl, and from wanted the collection but not the now dowdy house, and in his face depended fan-like a marvelous red beard, 1933 the paintings were removed to the Philadelphia Museum beautiful in tone with each separate hair delicately of Art on the pretext that the house was unsafe. It was crinkled from beginning to end. Moreover, his face was demolished a few years later. 5 snarled and homely as an English bulldog’s. Louis’s eyes No scholar, despite decades of imaginative sleuthing, has were riveted, in infatuation, to this beard, as he listened ever found a photograph of the original exterior of the to a string of oaths yards long. For it seems after he had Bloomfield Moore house. Its interior, by contrast, is well delivered his initial fiat, Furness looked at him half documented, as the images reproduced here show. They first blankly, half enraged, as at another kind of dog that had slipped in through the door. His first question had been appeared in George william Sheldon’s Artistic Houses (New 6 as to Louis’s experience, to which Louis replied, York: D. Appleton and Company, 1883-1884). Apart from modestly enough, that he had just come from the them, and a few tantalizing sketches for ornament in Furness’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. This sketchbooks, they are all we have. answer was the detonator that set off the mine which Until now. The chance discovery of a highly detailed, and blew up in fragments all the schools in the land and highly opinionated, account of the house by its original client, scattered the professors headless and limbless quarters gives us for the first time a clue as to what it looked like. It also of earth and hell. Louis, he said, was a fool. He said Louis gives us something we never had before: a lively picture of how was an idiot to have wasted his time in a place where one Furness interacted with his clients, and his jaunty wit and was filled with sawdust, like a doll, and became a prig, a charming impertinence. Perhaps it would have been snob, and an ass. discovered earlier if its author had not concealed it so

11 discreetly in a book on the education of women, published pronounced her insane. 10 keely died in 1898, his promises under a pseudonym. unrealized, and few weeks later she died too. wags could not The house was built between 1871 and 1873 by Bloomfield resist the temptation of suggesting that she died of a broken Haines Moore (1819-1878), who made his fortune in the heart. paper-manufacturing firm of Jessup and Moore. Moore If Clara Jessup Moore is remembered at all today, it is as collected paintings and fine old books, as befitted a man in the keely’s dupe. But she turns out to have been an architectural paper business. 7 But the real intellect of the family was his wife patron of fierce intelligence and conviction. we can now see Clara Jessup (1824-1899), the daughter of his partner, whom that she was deeply distressed by Furness’s architecture he married in 1842. Clara was more interested in writing and –more damningly –by his attitude. Of course, Victorian books than in collecting them, and soon after their marriage discretion ensured her respectful silence and for decades she there came forth a stream of novels, short stories, poems, and smoldered in silence. This changed in 1892, when she decided books of etiquette, all of which were coyly credited to either to move permanently to London and to sell her Philadelphia Clara Moreton or Mrs. H. O. ward. 8 house. She announced the sale the same week that she After her husband’s death, Mrs. Moore came under the published her Social Ethics and Society Duties: Thorough influence of John w. keely, one of history’s most successful Education of Girls for Wives and Mothers and for charlatans, whose “experiments” in perpetual motion she Professions . She wrote the book, reviewers noted, “under her would underwrite for the rest of her life. keely was a former usual nom de plume of H. O. ward.” 11 Here she addressed with mechanic and a carnival barker, and both professions came in startling frankness the issues that a modern woman might handy as he beguiled investors with double-talk about face, from divorce to “home treatment of the insane.” whether protoplasm, sympathetic vibrations, primitive atomic motion, or not she felt liberated by the frank subject matter or her and his lucrative “hydro-pneumatic pulsating vacuo farewell to Philadelphia, she now was able to tell the story of machine.” 9 Mrs. Moore fell hard for this patter and became his Furness and her house. She decently veiled it by anonymity, principal public defender. Her Keely and His Discoveries: but anyone who knew her and her house (and all of Aerial Navigation (London, 1893) is the most lucid statement Philadelphia society did) would know exactly whom she was of his ideas as well as a classic case study of childlike gullibility talking about. on the part of an otherwise first-rate intellect. All this was The extract should be quoted in its entirety: deeply distressing to her family, and her son publicly

Another opening for women is house architecture. No one knows so well as a woman the advantages and disadvantages of the arrangements of the interior of houses. The hundred little things thought trivial by a man, are by a woman known to be important. She knows the steps it saves to have the storeroom in the right place; the inconvenience of having her linen-closet without a window to light it, though it be but a small circular one, opening from a well-lighted bath or dressing room. A house, no matter how exquisite in ornamental details, may be made dark and dismal for want of proper forethought in its plan. It is easy to light dark closets from the rooms that adjoin them; but when the skylight has been wrongly constructed, it is not easy to light dark halls and staircases. For lack of forethought in an architect, one of the most beautiful homes that he built was wanting in the first requisites for cheerfulness, comfort, and convenience. A window had to be cut on the first flight of stairs, which was as dark as an underground passage in one part. A hot-air pipe passed through the wine-cellar. The enormous plate- glass windows would have required machinery to move them without breaking the chains; and consequently, until each plate was cut in two, they were always out of repair. The metal grooves of the sliding doors were placed below instead of above; and visitors invariably stumbled over them, even if the inmates of the house ever escaped. with four furnace fires in full blast, the house could not be kept comfortably warm, in the coldest weather, without closing the doors of the picture gallery and billiard- room. The rooms which were to have been decorated to correspond to the furniture and hangings (Louis XVI., Louis XIII., and Greek the samples of stuff sent), were all in one architectural style, with no attempt to conform to the orders given. But the crowning error was in the position of the house. After the plan of building had been decided upon, which was a copy of a Boston residence, the wife of the owner of the site purchased an adjoining lot in order to have a southern exposure for the grounds, and to prevent the possibility of a wall being built up against the dining-room windows. Returning from abroad, she found that her forethought had been of no avail. The house was built with the lot on the north, and no way of entering it save from the street or from the stable ground. “How do you like your new house?” she was asked. The reply was, “I feel as a woman would feel who had ordered a comfortable home costume, and had received a ball dress.”

when a man yields to his wife in the choice of an architect, giving up his preferences for one of more experience, the wife has a right to expect from the architect as faithful attention to her wishes in her absence as if she had been on the spot to see that they were carried out; and not leave to carpenters the selection of tiles for which shades of various colours had been sent, –nor decorations made à fantaisie when styles of certain periods had been ordered. Think of a library for which furniture and hangings had been commanded as purely Greek as they could be made, containing a fireplace in carved wood, reaching up to the ceiling, better suited for an English baronial hall! Of course, the Greek furniture was countermanded by cable despatch to Paris, where it had been ordered. The architect, in expressing his surprise at the evident disappointment of the wife, said, “I wonder that you do not like it. Every one who has seen it admires it very much.” The only expression which the wife gave to the intense annoyance occasioned by this interference with her plans was manifested in the question she put in reply: “Did you, as the architect, construct your plans to please every one or to please me?” “Oh, anything that you do not like I can change to please you,” was the answer. “No, I will have nothing changed. I do not wish to have my husband troubled about any increase in the expense.” “But I can make out the bills in a way that he will never know of the increased expense,” was the answer. The wife looked her surprise, but said nothing; and the architect continued, “Did you never hear of the sea-captain who rendered an account one item of which was for a pair of trousers? ‘No,’ said the ship-owner, ‘I can’t pay for your trousers;’ and he scratched the item out. The next time the ship came in, the captain’s bill was looked over, and pronounced all right. “No trousers here,” said the ship-owner. ‘Yes, yes, they are there, but you can’t find ‘em,’ chuckled the captain.” 12 12 what a trove of detail in 800 words! That Clara was something that enticed her. Perhaps it was the nearby house of speaking about her own house, there can be no doubt. It did Lucy Hamilton Hooper, which had just been completed and indeed boast a painting gallery and billiard gallery to the rear, which boasted walls “frescoed from the first floor to the roof” which could be shut off if necessary. And it was pushed to the from Furness’s drawings. 16 Hooper, her fellow woman writer, south of its lot, leaving a vacant strip to the north, as one can was an editor of Lippincott’s Magazine , to which Mrs. Moore see in the 1875 Hopkins Atlas of Philadelphia . It even had that contributed. And likewise Mrs. Moore likewise had Furness “fireplace in carved wood, reaching up to the ceiling, better fresco her walls, as we see in the run of bright flowers skipping suited for an English baronial hall,” intruding upon Mr. up alongside the stair. Moore’s library. If we do not learn the beginning of the story, we learn its we learn a great deal here about the Bloomfield Moore astonishing conclusion. No sooner was the basic plan settled house, and we should take the items in ascending order of than Mrs. Moore went abroad, leaving Furness to carry out her importance. First, Mrs. Moore confirms that the house was instructions about decorating the interior. 17 She wished her indeed by Furness himself, and was not a Furness & Hewitt rooms to be in certain period styles –“Louis XVI., Louis XIII., collaboration, just as Sullivan concluded. Next we learn that it and Greek” –and the furniture and hangings were to be was Mrs. Moore who personally selected Furness, not her coordinated accordingly. But upon her return, and to her husband, who preferred an architect “of amazement, these various rooms were more experience.” Mr. Moore was right “all in one architectural style” and, what to be concerned. 13 Furness had just left was worse, not in one that she the firm of Fraser Furness & Hewitt, recognized. Instead, Furness had where he had been subject to the counsel inflicted upon her “decorations made à and criticism of his senior partner, John fantaisie .” Of course, the principal Fraser, an architect universally regarded reason that we admire Furness today is as “a well-regarded master of his just that fantaisie , and presumably this profession through all its minutest is why Mrs. Moore sought him out in the details –practical & theoretical.” 14 Fraser first place. was not likely to bring a heated pipe In the end, it was Furness’s jaunty through a cool wine cellar, or to put highhandedness that most infuriated raised metal grooves in the floor, or to Mrs. Moore. when he offered to alter neglect the lighting of the stair hall, or to the house to please her, she haughtily commit any of those other beginner’s refused, insisting that she did not wish blunders that scandalized Mrs. Moore. her husband “troubled” by the what we do not learn is how the additional expense. Here she played the Moores came to Furness. They were martyr, burdening Furness with the longstanding members of Philadelphia’s knowledge that his poor client was First Unitarian Church, where Rev. suffering nobly at his incompetent william H. Furness, the father of the hands. So she hoped. The very last thing Adolphe weisz, Clara Jessup Moore (1824-1899), architect, preached. when Rev. Furness 1877. Philadelphia Museum of Art. she expected was that Furness would retired in 1875, Bloomfield Moore helped offer to conceal the cost of any to organize the commemoration. 15 But this alone would have alterations by juggling his accounts. The indecency of not have persuaded the Moores to entrust a young architect Furness’s offer, and the sheer vulgarity of his anecdote (one with a house costing $40,000 and involving a comprehensive imagines her stiffening at the word trousers ) must have been scheme of interior decoration. Mrs. Moore had to have seen deeply shocking. It is notable that this is the only time in her

L to R: Bloomfield Moore House, view from the dining room into the picture gallery and library with fireplace. Published in Artistic Houses, 1883. Frank Furness, architect.

13 Stairhall of the Bloomfield Moore House, with fresco of flowers visible alongside the stair. Published in Artistic Houses, 1883. Frank Furness, architect. account that she provides dialogue, recalling words that she It is a delight to have at last the record of a conversation must have nursed resentfully across the decades. between Furness and a client. One constant theme in all the Finally, we learn here something that is genuinely reminiscences of Furness is his caustic, pungent use of stunning, given our image of Furness as the most imaginative language, frequently expressed in highly picturesque and original of Victorian architects: the Bloomfield Moore profanity. He was too well-mannered to curse in front of a house was “a copy of a Boston residence.” But even this should lady, but as Mrs. Moore’s remarks show about “the captain’s not surprise us. Furness’s architectural juvenilia is filled with trousers,” he knew how to get a rise out of her, just at the edge pastiches of buildings by his mentor, . of public decency. This adds to our picture of Furness’s Perhaps the house in Boston was the richly carved one just roguish charm, his raciness and also his instant ability to completed by Hunt for Martin Brimmer, who like Moore was convey his point with an instructive parable. Clearly he a great collector of art. 18 It is quite possible that Mrs. Moore absorbed the power of those parables from a childhood spent saw the house and admired it; and it is certainly in keeping listening every Sunday to the sermons preached in his father’s with her imperious character that she would have insisted on Unitarian church. a copy of it. (This would explain the recurrence of details from the Brimmer house in Furness’s work of the early 1870s). 19 If so, and it seems likely, then the Bloomfield Moore façade would have been an essay in what the critic referred to as Hunt’s “staccato style,” his highly h animated version of the Neo-Grec style, characterized by deeply incised ornament, expressive linear detail, bold chamfering, and an abstracted use of Greek elements. 20 It is a theme that preoccupied Furness in the early 1870s, and we see it in his monument to Edward Burd Grubb in Burlington, New Jersey, and his Dr. John J. Reese House in Philadelphia. This article is gratefully dedicated to James F. O’Gorman, These are splinters of the same architectural ideas that he was Hyman Myers, and George E. Thomas, who began the exploring in more concentrated and lavish form in the great and still ongoing hunt for a photograph of the Bloomfield Moore House. Bloomfield Moore house forty-four years ago.

14 L to R: Reconstructed floor plan of the Bloomfield Moore house; Martin Brimmer House, Boston. Richard M. Hunt, architect; Dr. John J. Reese house, 266 South Twenty-First Street, Philadelphia, 1874. Frank Furness, architect. Photo by Andrew Pinkham. Notes Treasury, March 7, 1877. Bénet’s letter is one of several by prominent Philadelphians in support of Fraser, all speaking 1. Louis H. Sullivan, Autobiography of an Idea (New York: American highly of his practical skills. National Archives, record Group 56, Institute of Architects, 1924), pp. 190-191. Series 209, Box 12, recommendations of Division of 2. Albert Kelsey, an architect who knew both Furness and Sullivan, Appointments, Application for Appointments, Heads of confirmed in 1924 that the Bloomfield Moore house was indeed Treasury Offices, 1830 - 1910. the “flower by the roadside.” “Men and Things,” Philadelphia 15. Exercises at the Meeting of the First Congregational Unitarian Evening Bulletin (April 18, 1924), p. 8, col. 5. Society, January 12, 1875: Together with the Discourse 3. Michael J. Lewis, Frank Furness: Architecture and the Violent Delivered by Rev. W. H. Furness, Sunday, Jan. 10, 1875, on the Mind (New York: W. W. Norton, 2001), pp. 106-108. Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of his Ordination, January 4. “The present front of Ohio freestone is to be removed and a new 12, 1825 (Philadelphia: Sherman & Co., 1875), pp. 4-6. front of Indiana limestone substituted.” The new owner was 16. The house of robert and Lucy H. Hooper, previously unknown Francis T. S. Darley. See “Among the Builders,” Philadelphia to Furness scholars, stood at 1502 Locust Street. The architects Inquirer (July 1, 1895), p. 4. were Fraser Furness & Hewitt but when the house was sold 5. “Johnson Art Moved,” Philadelphia Inquirer (June 17, 1933). some three years later, the sales advertisements made a point 6. These photographs also served as the basis for the set of Ball of of mentioning both the architectural firm as well as the specific Fire , the classic Gary Cooper-Barbara Stanwyck movie. contribution of Furness in decorating the interior. “For Sale, No. 7. “Mr. Moore’s Library,” Wilmington (Delaware) News Journal 1502 Locust Street,” Philadelphia Inquirer (March 7, 1873), p. 8; (July 24, 1878), p. 4. “Important Sale,” Philadelphia Inquirer (March 24, 1873), p. 3. 8. “MOOre, Mrs. Clara Jessup,” in Frances e. Willard and Mary A. 17. For a reconstruction of the floor plan, see George e. Thomas, Livermore, eds., A Woman of the Century...Leading American Jeffrey A. Cohen, and Michael J. Lewis, Frank Furness: The Women in All Walks of Life (Buffalo, Chicago, and New York: Complete Works (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, Charles Wells Moulton, 1893), pp. 515-516. 1991), pp. 168-169. 9. “Keely of Motor Fame is Dead,” Philadelphia Times (November 18. Like Brimmer’s house, the façade of Moore’s house involved 19, 1898), pp. 1-2. detailed stone-cutting. Furness’s masons were Atkinson & 10. “Mrs. Moore’s Son Says She’s Insane,” Philadelphia Times Mylhertz, the same expert stone carvers who created the (December 15, 1895), p. 12. façade of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. See letter, 11. “New Publications: Mrs. Bloomfield Moore’s Social ethics and Atkinson & Mylhertz to Fairman rogers, April 18, 1878, archives Social Duties,” Philadelphia Inquirer (November 28, 1892), p. 5. of PAFA. 12. Mrs. H. O. Ward, Social Ethics and Society Duties: Thorough 19. This makes all the more prophetic Jeffrey A. Cohen’s stress on Education of Girls for Wives and Mothers and for Professions the Brimmer house as an early source for Furness. See his (Boston: estes and Lauriat, 1892), pp. 240-242. “Styles and Motives in the Architecture of Frank Furness,” in 13. The firm of Fraser Furness & Hewitt dissolved on September 1, Frank Furness: The Complete Works , pp. 99-100. 1871 and by December of that year Furness had already 20. Montgomery Schuyler, “The Works of the Late richard M. secured the Bloomfield Moore commission. It appears in a list Hunt,” Architectural Record V, no. 2 (October-December, 1895), of projects in hand in a Furness sketchbook, where it is p. 104. Schuyler suggested that Hunt’s “staccato style” first annotated as costing $40,000 and earning a fee of $2000. announced itself in Boston in 1870, “and a very startling 14. Letter of recommendation by General S. V. Bénet in support of announcement it seemed.” John Fraser’s application to serve as Supervising Architect of the

15 Perpendicular Style, Design VI as published in Hart’s Parish Churches , 1857. Hart’s Parish Churches

NOTES ON AN OVERLOOkED AUTHOR & ARCHITECT OF THE GOTHIC REVIVAL ERA

John H. Carnahan and James F. O’Gorman

Despite a lamentably brief lifespan and career, J. Coleman what Hart was doing for the next several years has not yet Hart (1828-1862) carved out for himself a noteworthy place as come into usable focus. 7 He surfaces again as the author of an interesting and innovative architect working in the Gothic Designs for Parish Churches, in the Three Styles of English Revival style. He was born in New York in 1828, is listed in the Church Architecture; with an Analysis of Each Style; a 1850 federal census as an architect living in Jersey City, off Review of the Nomenclature of the Periods of English Gothic and on had an office in New York City during that decade, and Architecture, and Some Remarks Introductory to Church died in Jersey twelve years later. 1 During that time we know Building, Exemplified in a Series of over One Hundred that he supplied San Francisco with its first Presbyterian Illustrations . Copyrighted in 1856 and issued in 1857, it is a church edifice, produced a handsome book on parish churches work whose design was lauded by most reviewers: royal octavo adopting English Gothic styles, gave a lecture to an audience with cloth covers, gold stamped on the front (and spine) with at the fledgling American Institute of Architects that ended the abbreviated title “Hart’s Parish Churches” (by which it was with a discussion by Leopold Eidlitz, Richard Morris Hunt, more conveniently known) arched above a baptismal font , and Henry Van Brunt, all members of his copied from that at St. Andrew’s at Histon in Cambridgeshire, audience. He saw erected from his drawings at least three with the same design blind-stamped on the rear. (The churches in northern New England, two of which are of placement of a font on the cover was not a purely artistic unusual character. decision, for, as the author reminds us, its proper location is Hart’s training is undocumented, but he probably spent an near the entry to symbolize the baptized entering the “spiritual apprenticeship with william H. Ranlett who was born in church.” For Hart, and others, ecclesiastical design was at the Augusta, , and moved to New York in 1840. 2 There he service of symbolism.) Paper, page design, typography, moved briefly into the office of Joseph C. wells, a recent illustrations: all were noted with approval by reviewers. In English immigrant. In 1847 the first installment of Ranlett’s addition to orthographic drawings, the book is ornamented The Architect appeared; this serial publication featured with six scenic perspectives, well-drawn by the author and smooth-walled blocky forms onto which were affixed finely reproduced as lithographs by Sarony and Company, ornamental details denoting the various styles in which architects could work. when in 1849 Ranlett left for Gold Rush San Francisco, “with fifty dwellings and stores, all complete, ready for setting up and use,” he is said to have turned over his office to Hart, then only twenty-one. 3 Ranlett did not return to New York for some five years. 4 Out in San Francisco, the Rev. Albert williams planned to accommodate his start-up Presbyterian flock in something better than the tent used at the time for services. Through the generosity of a parishioner with a connection to De witt & Company, wholesale merchants in New York, he ordered a church from New York City. According to The Annals of San Francisco of 1856-57, it was pre-built then disassembled in New York and forwarded via Cape Horn. The edifice “was designed by J. Coleman Hart, architect, of New York” and arrived in November, 1850, ready for setting up complete with fixtures, pulpit, pews, lamps, “and a fine-toned bell.” It seated 800 parishioners, and “was the first [church in the town] constructed according to accepted ecclesiastical rules, a beautiful Gothic building, with porch and belfry.” Alas, after just five months the church succumbed to one of the regular fires that leveled the “frail and fluctuating” village in its first years. It was most likely a timber frame building, as were, no doubt, the dwellings Ranlett brought west a little earlier. An engraved view of the church in The Annals shows its west front with its porch and belfry. 5 In bloodline terms, we can 6 think of it as by Hart out of Ranlett. J. Coleman Hart, Hart’s Parish Churches , 1857. The Library Company of Philadelphia.

17 some of which somewhat recall the aura of Thomas Gray’s sharply, for example, with Irish-born Charles P. Dwyer’s century-old “Elegy written in a Country Churchyard.” The Economy of Church, Parsonage and School Architecture , book was issued by the publisher Daniel Dana, Jr. who was published in Buffalo in 1856, where the approach is practical also a seller of Episcopalian-oriented works. and non-denominational. Hart’s text is the result of At least two prior publications, unmentioned by Hart, seem scholarship. He cites or quotes from much of the recent to have directly influenced his book. In format, presentation, English writings on and ecclesiastical and some details, it appears to have been inspired by Raphael design including those of william Bardwell, Mathew Bloxam, and Andrew J. Brandon’s Parish Churches , published in parts Edward Boid, James Dallaway, Frederick Apthorp Paley, John by George Bell in London from 1846 onward. The tower of Louis Petit, George Ayliffe Poole, John Ruskin, and above all Hart’s Design IV, for example, resembles that of Howell Rickman, not to mention quotations from the works of Byron, Church in Lincolnshire as shown by the Brandons. But their Pope, and Shakespeare, besides Coleridge. (There is no book focused on historical monuments whereas Hart reference to either of the Pugins.) Hart established the published his own version of churches in the Early English, romanticized medieval spirit of his thesis on the title page, Decorated, and Perpendicular styles as defined, not without where he quotes lines from the English prelate-poet, Frederick some controversy, by Thomas Rickman in 1817. In 1850 in william Faber: New York, English-born Frank wills published his Ancient Taste and art, rejecting heathen mould, English Architecture, and its Principles Applied to the Wants Shall draw their types from Europe’s middle night, of the Church of the Present Day . Although wills did not fully well pleased if such good darkness be their light. accept Rickman’s terminology, he, too, may well have given Hart the idea for his own book. Under the inspiration of There is no record that our author ever visited England, but English examples wills illustrates a number of churches he his preface acknowledges his dependence on English designed that grew out of his research. None of wills’s designs publications and reports that none of his countrymen has is seriously followed in the works depicted by Hart, except for discussed in print Rickman’s resolution of English Gothic into the similar style in which they are presented. “three great periods.” His survey of the literature leads him to For Hart, there was not “a cause so holy as that of church defend those stylistic designations. He then demonstrates his building.” He cites Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s definition of a book-learned understanding of those styles in a series of six church edifice as “the petrification of religion,” and he was to original ecclesiastical designs, two for each period. His end his AIA lecture by demanding “ unity in religion, unity in Introduction discusses the parts of the church edifice from architecture, and the union of both .” (His emphasis.) It goes orientation (the altar on the east, the entrance on the south, without saying that the religion he meant was Episcopal and etc.) to plan to lectern, all at the service of symbolism. A the architecture he espoused, English Gothic. This contrasted section on nomenclature leads to his discussion of each of his designs given in plan, elevation, section, details, and his own elegantly rendered perspective. The work was widely and generally favorably reviewed by the American ecclesiastical press, and even garnered a brief notice from a German periodical. 8 The New York Evangelist , for example, reported that the elegant volume...furnishes complete directions for those who wish to adopt either [sic] of these styles, and will do much to introduce a pure and noble architecture into this country, where the popular taste is in danger of being corrupted by the great number of buildings erected in a fantastical, finical, or pretentious style.

The Church Review thought “it will do much to educate the mind of the Church up to a truer conception of certain great principles not arbitrary but eternal.” The American Church Monthly , however, took a more jaundiced view: “we are always inclined to look with suspicion upon works published by architects,” it said, for the motive behind them is a lack of business. Hart’s is “entirely too slight and superficial to be of much service to anyone but himself.” Actually, the book’s ultimate lack of influence stemmed, as we shall see, not from its content but the time of its arrival. A glance at the gauche ecclesiastical designs in Charles P. Dwyer’s contemporary publication will confirm the quality of Hart’s own. while his countrymen in general found favor with Hart’s designs, they failed to pass the acid test of the Ecclesiologist , organ of the strict English Ecclesiological Society. Its reviewer’s long evaluation noted with displeasure that Hart adopted the “Rickman terminology for the styles in preference to our own.” The opening of the review is guardedly favorable: “we welcome...the handsome volume now before us...Its Title page of Hart’s Parish Churches , 1857.

18 somewhat verbose title accurately describes its contents,” in symbolism of [English] Gothic architecture and the which the author quotes “extensively from Cis-Atlantic methods for its study were irrelevant [by the 1850s] to works.” However, the reviewer found American revivalism. 10 little novelty in the letter-press...and nothing that would Hart’s publication coincided with the founding of the be worth quoting for English readers...[although no American Institute of Architects of which he was an early doubt it] will have an important influence for good member. He reiterated his pious allegiance to the religious among Transatlantic church builders. symbolism of English Gothic architecture in a paper he read to Hart would have more influence, however, the review goes on the fledgling association in 1859, a presentation reported in to say, if he had illustrated ancient Gothic monuments (as had full in the Crayon , the house organ of the AIA After the Brandons) instead of his own designs. Such would have establishing that “Building is now a craft, architecture an art” (thereby recognizing the divergent status of builder and instructed and improved his readers’ taste...and...would designer achieved in this country by mid-century), he have saved his book from the importation of being in some sort an elaborate advertisement of his own proclaims that the Renaissance marked the “downfall of art... architectural skill. [when] pagan architecture usurped the place of Christian.” After a sweep through history he concludes with a plea for After a point by point dismantling of Hart’s pictured designs, “undivided attention to the study of Gothic...The religion to the reviewer sums them up as which we owe so many blessings.” In his book he the attempt of an architect, who has never had the demonstrated his allegiance to English Gothic; here he is advantage of seeing English architecture, or has failed to content to speak of the style in general. His meaning was apprehend the genius of the style, to work up borrowed variously interpreted. From an audience that included much detail into an architectural whole. 9 better remembered colleagues came divergent views on style and what Hart had said about it: concurrence from Leopold There are some infelicities in the designs and Eidlitz (“The Renaissance was but a blind return to the classic contradictions in the presentations. The Ecclesiologist , for styles.”); Richard Morris Hunt thought the speaker had example, pointed out that “substantially proved that Gothic architecture should give way It is a most singular thing that the south wall of the to another style”; Henry Van Brunt could accept Gothic for chancel [in some designs] should be shown as ecclesiastical design but not for domestic. He was struck by completely blank. In a northern latitude this is surely the barbarity of the domestic architecture of the “purest most incomprehensible, Gothic age.” Richard Upjohn, the medievalist from the older generation, surprisingly “could not but acknowledge that a blankness Hart defended in the text but avoided in two of his many of the most impressive Christian monuments were not three standing works. As for Design III, the west tower Gothic.” As he recommended the study of all styles, “for the is a small square broached into a narrow octagon, with purpose of adapting the beauty contained in them,” Upjohn an octagonal spirelet, and is little more than a staircase gave notice of the ensuing age of colorful Ecclesiasticism that turret, or pinnacle, aping the place of a regular tower. was to swamp Hart’s pious orthodoxy. The change is made evident by comparing Hart’s designs with those published by Another “in no way recalls, to an English eye, a First-Pointed anglophile Henry Hudson Holly in his Church Architecture village-church,” using the Ecclesiologist ’s name for Rickman’s fifteen years later. Because of the continuing importance of the “Early English.” It might be noted too, although the reviewer members of his audience, Hart’s AIA lecture is the one aspect did not, that despite Hart’s text correctly locating the of his historical presence that is discussed in recent literature. 11 traditional and appropriate placement of the baptismal font as Hart not only wrote and talked about church architecture near the south entrance of a church as possible, the ranks of in the late 1850s, in these years he designed, to present pews shown in his many plans make that impossible. knowledge, three standing edifices, only one of which follows Hart’s Parish Churches was a failed attempt to change the completely his promptings in Parish Churches , and that is St. Brandons’ Anglican Nationalism into American Luke’s Episcopal, St. Albans, Vermont, 1858-60. 12 The Episcopalianism. As its title indicates, the publication was a congregation began the building process when the committee product of the English-influenced parish church revival dating in charge proposed to ask the “Bishop of the Diocese” for a from the 1830s, which had run its course by the time Hart’s “plan for a new church edifice.” That prelate was none other book appeared, when the focus of the profession had changed than John Henry Hopkins, architect of Trinity Episcopal with a new generation of architects, nationalism and new Church, Pittsburgh, 1823, an example of naïve “Gothick” materials had arrived on the scene, and Eclecticism began to design, and author of the Essay on Gothic Architecture for replace historical orthodoxy. The book represented the Use of the Clergy of 1836, the first American publication on culmination –the swan song –of an era, rather than a the subject. In that book Hopkins explained that he was germinating influence. Despite what impressed reviewers said frequently asked to provide church designs but found it about it, Hart’s attempt to import orthodox English Gothic neither “convenient nor practical” to do so; hence his book. church design was apparently ignored by the profession. Although his name appears in the minutes of the building Frederick Clarke withers’s re-interpretation of the west façade committee, the bishop apparently decided it would be of Hart’s Design III in his St. Michael’s, Germantown, inconvenient to supply a design, for in March, 1859, that Pennsylvania, of 1858, may be the exception that proves the committee examined “two plans drawn for the Parish by J. rule. As Phoebe Stanton wrote in her basic work on the Coleman Hart,” and then adopted one of them. Part of the American Gothic Revival in which she saw no need to mention reason Hart has lacked historical presence is that his name has Hart, the been omitted or corrupted, or his work attributed to others. 13

19 As it stands, the church in St. Albans does not reproduce Gothic, as represented in St. Luke’s, Hart’s other known verbatim any of Hart’s published designs. Although the churches, while pointed and conventionally planned, are not entrance tower is copied, minus its spire shown in his the easily recognizable progeny of those in his book. Two other perspective but not his elevations, from Design VI for a existing, small Episcopal churches are documented as Hart’s Perpendicular church, it is moved to the north corner of the work: St. Michael’s in Brattleboro, Vermont and St. Mark’s in west front rather than on axis with the nave as in the book. Ashland (formerly Holderness), New Hampshire, both dating

L to R: Church Street, St. Albans, Vermont c. 1900. St. Luke’s Episcopal Church is seen on the far right. New York Public Library. J. Coleman Hart, Design VI, Perspective, Perpendicular Church, 1850.

Thus the plan seems closer to that of Hart’s Early English from 1857-58. Although in plan and massing they somewhat Design II. The church exterior is composed of rock-faced, reflect his published designs, they otherwise depart from random-coursed local “calico” stone. The gable over the nave them. Those were to be masonry structures in the manner of flares out above the aisles. Along the one-story exterior, English Gothic churches, while these two are constructed of an lancets, one per interior bay, alternate with two-step exterior of exposed rectangular timber framework infilled with buttresses until, on the south, they are interrupted by an brickwork. Cost was probably a factor in this change, and Hart entrance porch with its pointed board and batten door. might have been recalling a timber frame for his San Francisco The ceiling of the nave within might have been derived church, but there could have been another: in his book he says from Plate V of Raphael and J. Arthur Brandons’ The Open (erroneously, as was pointed out by one reviewer) that the Timber Roofs of the Middle Ages of 1849 minus the decorative Gothic began in Germany then spread to France and England, bosses and longitudinal ribs to be found at the church in and one of the first notices of St. Mark’s reported that was “in Norfolk they illustrate. The lower roof of the chancel, on the a German style of architecture.” 14 Both these churches seem other hand, is of smooth, curved struts echoing the lancet of configured by English ideas but erected as much like the great eastern window over the altar. The smaller lancets Fachwerk Kirken as half-timbering, which would be rare in an along the sides lead to another grand window in the west English church. It seems there are no others like them from front. The richly ornamental rood rises on center from an this era in the vicinity. arch-braced timber at the entrance to the chancel. St. Michael’s Episcopal in Brattleboro, like St. Luke’s in St. Despite his commitment to the orthodoxy of English Albans, was also misattributed in the nomination for the

20 National Register where it was given by tradition to Richard and the cornerstone laid in August. The first services were Morris Hunt, a native of the city. 15 In November, 1857, agents held at Christmas, although the building was not consecrated of the church signed a contract with Joel Bullard to build a until 1863. The plan is a modified version of Hart’s published church edifice, to be finished in July, 1858, following the Early English Design I in which the western organ chapel is “drawings and specifications of J. Coleman Hart.” (They no omitted, the chancel is extended eastward into a half cylinder, longer exist.) The church was moved in 1953 and has been and a tower is added to the southeast corner of the nave. That added to in recent years, but it preserves much of Hart’s nave is covered by a tall gable with flared eaves over soffits original touch. emphasized by moldings and brackets; the east end is crowned St. Michael’s is formed of a broad five-bay nave and two by a half cone with flared eaves that is set lower than the roof aisles with a canonical south entrance porch and, eastward, a of the nave. The exterior walls, rising from an emphasized narrower flat-ended chancel. On the exterior, in place of the stone base, consist of timber posts and beams forming absent tower and spire that one might expect, a vintage rectangular panels infilled with common bond brickwork. The photograph records the presence of a small, open belfry riding the ridge of the main gable apparently above the chancel arch. It has not survived. The building, which originally sat on a fieldstone foundation (replaced by brick after the move), rises as exposed timber and common bond brick walls divided into rectangular grids across their exterior surfaces. within is an open gable above the nave supported by slender timber posts upholding a series of scissor trusses reinforced by collar and tie beams. Side aisles are defined as separate from the nave only by crucks springing longitudinally between posts and a lower shed roof supported by simple triangular trusses. The chancel is elevated and lit by a triad of trefoil openings. Subtlety lighted by a minimum of other trefoil stained glass windows, the almost delicate stick-work forest within the spacious edifice combines with the checkerboard exterior walls to produce a fetching architectural effect that might be called unique were it not for St. Michael’s equally fetching fraternal twin at Ashland, New Hampshire. St. Mark’s in Ashland, with its singular nave, is smaller than St. Michael’s with its basilica plan. It grew out of a meeting held in December, 1857, that instructed the Rector, Joshua R. Pierce, to begin planning for a new church. 16 Drawings by Hart (now also apparently lost) were approved in February, 1858, a building committee appointed, Top to bottom: Interior of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Brattleboro, Vermont. Photo by Jeff woodward. St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Brattleboro, Vermont. Photo by James F. O’Gorman.

21 tower rises three stories with circular openings in the second and an open belfry in the third. It is topped by an octagonal spire resting on a low hip roof. The church is placed on a low hill so that the picturesque composition looks best on approach via an angle from the lower street. Inside, the single nave rises up within the steep gable roof supported by kingpost trusses (now constrained by tie rods) that form five bays reflecting the spacing of the framing posts of the exterior. The fact that the pew arrangement is not copied from the book allows for the proper placement of the font near the south entry porch. The curved roof of the raised chancel is supported by two trusses, the easternmost identical to those in the nave; that at the entrance, different from the others, marks the division between the two spaces by means of an arch-supported collar beam, a translation into wood of the “chancel arch” Hart discusses at length in his Parish Churches . windows are cinquefoils set single, double, or triple as behind the altar. In the overall effect, the skeletal structural pattern of the timbers exterior “bleeds” through to the interior to form the delicate linear cage-work infilled with flat surfaces that define the space. The light and airy interior is an excellent example of splendid effect with simple means. These churches were standing by 1860 when Hart worked out of New York City. Had he lived beyond his thirty-four years, he may have produced much more of interest, but between 1860 and 1862 his residence is given as Township, New Jersey. The 1860 Federal Census lists him as a thirty-two-year-old “hired man.” In April of that year he deeded his house to his wife. The notice of his death in December, 1862, called him a “farmer” who died of Top to bottom: Exterior of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Ashland, New consumption. It is probable that the fatal illness overtook him Hampshire. Courtesy St. Mark’s Espiscopal Church. Interior of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. The chandeliers and tie rods are later as it did so many others in New York and other cities at mid- additions. Photo by James F. O’Gorman. century (including one of his children and his uncle, which

22 may suggest he was particularly vulnerable), at a time when urban physicians had just begun “to recognize a causal connection between decaying organic matter and such diseases as cholera and tuberculous.” 17 He may have rusticated himself in the Jersey fields hoping to recover, but it was too late. His fine book and his three known parish churches form a worthy monument to his talent.

h

Notes 7. From 1853 to 1859 Hart gave his home address as Glenn Park, Westchester County, New York, although he had an office in the 1. Archives of the episcopal Diocese of New York, Church of the city (at 167 Broadway) during those years. Little has come to light Advent register; New Jersey State Archives, return of Death, Vol. about this period, but he might have been involved with one or C, p. 674. both the following projects: “Plan of Building Sites, Glenn Park... 2. According to Jacob Landry’s research on the 1847 competition for 1852” (Office of the County Clerk, Westchester County, New York: the design of a Washington Monument for New York City, a J. C. see Laws of the State of New York III [Albany: J. B. Lyon and Hart, whom Landry suggests is our man, submitted two proposals: Company, 1913, Chap. 635, 1688-89]) or “Glenn Park, Map and one for a Gothic design and the other a Corinthian column Description, and Drawing of the Botanical Garden...1854” (a real surmounted by an enclosed statue. Apparently no drawings estate brochure at the Westchester Historical Society). In the survive. Landry, “The Washington Monument Project in New latter, one of the proposed streets is named Hart Avenue. York,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 28 8. Organ für christliche Kunst , 8 (Cologne 1858), 42; New York (December 1969), 291-97; Landry, The Architecture of Minard Evangelist , (May 28, 1857), 171; The Church Review and Lafever , New York: Columbia university Press, 1970, 141. There Ecclesiastical Register July 1857), 297; American Church Monthly was, however, a Wall Street lawyer in the city named Joseph C. (1857), 233-5. Hart. Contemporary newspapers cite a “J. C. Hart, esq.” as a 9. The Ecclesiologist 18 (December 1857), 367-69. speaker at the dedication of the site of the monument later that 10. Francis r. Kowsky, The Architecture of Frederick Clarke Withers , year. Our Hart would have been about nineteen then, certainly not Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan university Press, 1980, 47, 170n60. yet entitled to the stature of esquire. Kowsky calls Hart “John.” Phoebe B. Stanton, The Gothic Revival 3. Such portable structures parallel that published in 1840 by John & American Church Architecture , Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Hall as “A Portable Cottage,” Plate XIX in his A Series of Select and Press, 1968, 180. Original Modern Designs . As Thomas Gordon Smith points out in 11. The Crayon 6 (March 1859), 84-89. Paul r. Baker, richard Morris his 1996 essay in the Acanthus Press reprint of Hall’s works, Hall Hunt, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1980, 115; Jeanne Halgren copied the design from John Claudius Loudon’s London Kilde, When Church Became Theatre , Oxford university Press, Encyclopedia of Architecture of 1833. See also Charles P. Dwyer, 2002, 70. The Economic Cottage Builder . Buffalo: Wanzer, McKim & Co., 12. National register of Historic Places Inventory Form, St. Alban’s 1856, 124. Historical District, 1979; Glenn M. Andres and Curtis B. Johnson, 4. robert C. Muehlberger, “William H. ranlett and The Architect,” MA Buildings of Vermont , Charlottesville and London: university of Thesis, Johns Hopkins university, 1967; Philadelphia Inquirer , Virginia Press, 2014, 211-12. The authors are indebted to Carolyn November 3, 1849. Hart is listed at 86 Nassau Street in 1850-53 Fouts for copies of the relevant pages of the church’s Annual while ranlett is listed there in 1850 (Dennis Steadman Francis, Meeting Minute Book. Architects in Practice, New York City, 1840-1900 , New York: 13. The writer of the National register of Historic Places nominating Committee for the Preservation of Architectural records, 1979.) form for the St. Albans Historic District in which St. Luke’s stands While we know ranlett had left for San Francisco at the end of obviously read no further than the reference to the bishop in the 1849, he may have kept the office in his name until he decided to committee minutes, for in that nomination one finds the church stay out west for a while. Although in October 1852 he was said to given to the rev. Hopkins. have been appointed architect of the public buildings of California 14. The Farmer’s Cabinet (of Amherst, New Hampshire), December according to for October 20, 1852, and listed 21, 1859, 3: “J. Coleman Hart of New York was [the] architect.” himself as such in the San Francisco city directory for 1854, the 15. Paul A. Carnahan, The History of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church , architect of the Custom House, at least, was G. J. F. Bryant. ranlett Brattleboro: The History Committee, 1982, 30-33. Our thanks to is last listed in the San Francisco directory for 1854. Muehlberger Jeanne Crosby and especially Alan Lewis for research assistance, confused this J. Coleman Hart with a cousin of the same name. and to Maggie DeVries and Jeanne Hablanian of Hart’s Parish Churches was much more than a reworking of the for ongoing support. Brandons’ publication, as Muehlberger wrote. 16. “Laying of the Cornerstone of St. Mark’s Church at Holderness,” 5. Frank Soulé, John H. Gihon, and James Nesbet, The Annals of San Winnipesaukee Gazette , July 23 and August 20, 1859: “The Francisco , New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1855 (c. 1854), 691-92; architect...is J. Coleman Hart, of New York City.” The authors are Albert Williams, California Life Illustrated , New York: Phillips & indebted to David ruell for his model National register form and Hunt, 1883, 66-67; and Harold Kirker, “eldorado Gothic: Gold rush other kindnesses. Architects and Architecture,” California Historical Society Quarterly 17. Maria Farland, “Decomposing City: Walt Whitman’s New York 38 (March 1959), 43. and the Science of Life and Death,” ELH 74 (Winter 2007), 799- 6. For context see Charles e. Peterson, “Prefabs in the California Gold 827. rush, 1849,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 24 (December 1965), 318-24.

23 View of Franklin Street, Richmond, Virginia, 1905. New York Public Library. William Noland

THE MAkING OF A VIRGINIA ARCHITECT

Christopher V. Novelli

william Noland was one of the leading lights of Virginia the classical tradition in particular. By the 1890s, a shift architecture at the dawn of the Edwardian era. while working was beginning to occur in east coast cities like New York away in partnership with engineer Henry Baskervill from 1897 to from the picturesque eclecticism of previous decades toward 1917, he designed numerous high-style public and private designs which were more disciplined, historically accurate, buildings in Richmond and surrounding areas. Many of these and classical. But it was more than just a change in fashions. A are still landmarks today. Noland’s work embodied a new younger generation of academically trained architects was scholarly approach to architectural design which stressed taking a new approach to design that stressed stylistic purity, academic correctness, stylistic purity, and above all, a return academic correctness, and an adherence to historic period to the classical tradition. He played a leading role in models, or prototypes. This was the approach taught by the promoting the principles of Beaux-Arts design in Virginia and prestigious École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) in was one of the chief proponents of the grand classical vision Paris, considered the leading center for architecture training which became the dominant paradigm for American in the world. By the end of the nineteenth century increasingly architecture after the turn of the century. 1 Noland’s ability to more American architecture students were starting to study create elegant, sophisticated designs in the new classical taste abroad at the École des Beaux-Arts. At the core of the École’s made him a favorite of Richmond’s high society. Richmonders philosophy was the idea that the great architectural traditions praised Noland and Baskervill for bringing “a new spirit into of the past should serve as a basis for new design. Even though local design.” 2 the Beaux-Arts teaching method was based not on styles but Richmond’s west Franklin Street was the setting for most on a system of developing designs, it became virtually of Noland’s and Baskervill’s landmark buildings. After the synonymous with monumental classical edifices. Civil war, Franklin Street became the city’s most fashionable As America started to become a world power at the end of residential thoroughfare, lined with the townhouses and the nineteenth century, many felt that a new, more suburban mansions of Richmond’s Gilded Age elite. sophisticated architectural expression was required which Architecturally, the street presented a rich reflected America’s new national dignity—an pageant of antebellum and Victorian styles. architecture whose styling displayed a new Franklin Street was the social center of “...if I can ever become sense of order, restraint, and discipline. Even Victorian Richmond, and even though anything of a master in though an interest in classicism was already Monument Avenue (Franklin Street’s beginning to manifest itself in large eastern westward extension) rapidly developed after my profession, I should cities like New York, it was the overwhelming 1901, Franklin remained the center of prefer to devote my success of the 1893 world’s Columbian gravity for Richmond society until around Exposition, popularly known as the Chicago the First world war. talents to building up the world’s Fair, that made grand classical Looking at the larger picture, Noland was New South, as far as the architecture a national obsession. The working in a unique city during a unique Exposition, with its acres of gleaming white time. Briefly the capital of a nation, New South will let me.” classical buildings, demonstrated a new Richmond suffered a massive conflagration vision of order and harmony based upon a at the end of the Civil war known as the commitment to classical principles. The Evacuation fire. The fire reduced the city’s wILLIAM NOLAND unified classical vision revealed at the financial and manufacturing districts along Columbian Exposition inspired a generation the river to smoking ruins, and images of the devastation were of architects and urban planners across America, and the spread far and wide through illustrations in the printed press. image of the white classical city became the new dominant Though Richmond rebuilt quickly after the war, the damage paradigm. to perceptions of the city took longer to heal. As Richmond’s As America rose to a position of greatness on the world grand avenue during the , Franklin Street’s stage, many envisioned America as a new cultural power as buildings and architecture were not only symbols of civic pride well. This school of thought was associated with the concept of but reflections of the city’s image. 3 the American Renaissance, which held that America was the heir of western civilization and the great traditions of western The New Academic Approach art and culture. Central to the idea of the American to Architecture and the Grand Classical Vision Renaissance were the beliefs that “all great art borrows from Noland’s work reflected new trends in American architecture the past” and that “the art of the past could provide useful as architects and their patrons began to seek a more sources for the development of a national American art.” In sophisticated look based on historic European precedents and the field of architecture, historic European and American

25 styles and building types were borrowed and adapted for young aspiring architects: John Stewardson and walter Cope. modern American needs. The American Renaissance was Stewardson had attended the École for a year in the Atelier nationalistic yet cosmopolitan—it drew upon European Pascal. 15 He returned to Philadelphia in September 1882 and precedent but attempted to give it an American cast. 4 started working in Chandler’s office as a draftsman in October. walter Cope started his career in the office of Philadelphia William Noland: The Making of a Virginia Architect architect as an estimator and draftsman prior Virginia’s first licensed architect, william Noland was one of to working in Chandler’s office. 16 walter Cope and John the principal promoters in Richmond and in Virginia of the Stewardson founded the firm of Cope & Stewardson in June architectural values associated with the École des Beaux-Arts 1885. 17 Noland had joined their firm by January 1886. 18 Even and the grand classical vision manifested at the Columbian though Noland never attended the École, he was able to Exposition. Noland once wrote that just as one would not absorb its principles indirectly through Chandler and then write a poem mixing unrelated languages, one should not Stewardson, who had both studied there. design a building composed of dissimilar styles. 5 Noland’s Cope & Stewardson became one of Philadelphia’s most comparison of architecture to language was apt. Central to the prominent firms. They are perhaps best known for their work Beaux-Arts design philosophy was the idea that only similar in the style at Princeton, the University of stylistic vocabularies should be used together and that just as Pennsylvania, and Bryn Mawr. Their projects, however, words follow rules of proper vocabulary and grammar, encompassed a number of styles and building types. 19 Cope architectural forms should follow rules of proper usage and and Stewardson stressed the innovative use of historic arrangement. precedent for meeting modern needs—the philosophy of the Described as a “quiet, modest Virginia gentleman,” william École. The value Cope and Stewardson placed on foreign Churchill Noland came from an old Virginia family in Hanover travel and the close study of historic prototypes directly County. 6 He was born on June 4, 1865 at Airwell, his family’s influenced Noland. ancestral home since the Noland furthered his seventeenth century. 7 During education in Philadelphia by the Civil war, his father, joining the T-Square Club, a Callendar St. George Noland social and educational club served as a Lieutenant for young architects. in the Confederate Founded in 1883, the T- Army. Even though Noland’s Square Club of Philadelphia family had known gentility sought to elevate before the war, the collapse architectural standards of the plantation economy through education. It gave afterwards, together with the young architects without death of Noland’s father in formal training a way to gain 1878, when william was experience by holding thirteen, brought reduced monthly inter-club circumstances to his family. 8 exhibitions and drawing For his senior year, Noland competitions modeled after attended the Episcopal High the École. It was one of many School of Virginia, a private architectural clubs that boy’s boarding school near formed in the 1880s and Alexandria. He graduated in L to R: william C. Noland, c. 1900. Virginia Historical Society. Henry E. 1890s which sought to raise 1882. 9 For financial reasons, Baskervill, c. 1910. Courtesy Ethel Baskerville Powell. design standards and the Noland was unable to attend status of the profession. a college or university or to receive a formal education in Cope and Stewardson were two of the club’s founding architecture. That said, formal academic programs in members. 20 The club exposed Noland to current issues and architecture were rare in the United States during the late- ideas in the profession and brought him into contact with the nineteenth century. The first architectural school in the U.S. wider community of architects in Philadelphia. Noland was an was founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in active member, and in 1886 was elected to serve as both Boston in 1865; the first in the South was at Tuskegee in Secretary and Treasurer. The club participated in public 1893. 10 Those who could afford it attended the École des exhibitions at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts as Beaux-Arts. However, the usual method for training was well as the Salmagundi Club in New York and the New York through the apprentice system. 11 Architectural League. 21 After graduating from high school, Noland moved to while Noland was in Philadelphia he studied classical Philadelphia to pursue a career in architecture. 12 By October architecture from a French edition of Vignola’s Rules of the 1882, he was working in the office of architect Theophilus Five Orders of Architecture (Regola delli cinque ordini Parsons Chandler, Jr. 13 Chandler had been in the Atelier d’architettura ). Vignola was the standard guide for students of Vaudremer at the École and later became known for his classicism during the late nineteenth and early twentieth Gothic-inspired buildings. He founded the Philadelphia centuries. 22 Noland also kept up with current trends, reading chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and in 1890 he The American Architect and Building News .23 founded and became the first director of the University of Even though Noland received his architectural training in Pennsylvania’s Department of Architecture. 14 while Noland the North, he remained passionately loyal to Virginia and the was working in Chandler’s office, he would have met two other South. Noland was greatly concerned about the image of

26 Virginia and wanted to see it regain some of the prestige it had watercolors, and took precise measurements of the ancient lost after the Civil war. when he was twenty-one, Noland buildings and monuments. Some of his renderings still survive wrote in a letter to his mother: and display a highly refined technique. 34 This week past, I have been thinking of my plans for the By July 1895, Noland had returned to the U.S. By future...and the thought has come to me...if I can ever November, he had opened an office on the sixth floor of become anything of a master in my profession, I should Richmond’s Chamber of Commerce building, located in the prefer to devote my talents to building up the New South, heart of downtown Richmond at the corner of Ninth and Main as far as the New South will let me. 24 streets. 35 Once Noland arrived in Richmond, he led an active social life and was a favorite escort at parties. 36 To help The next week, he expressed further hopes for helping to establish himself in Richmond, Noland gave lectures on restore Virginia’s image: European architecture to local groups, like the woman’s Club. Now I want to boom Virginia. I want to see her The written introduction to one of these lectures survives and acknowledged the mother of men that can hold their own demonstrates that Noland had a full command of European under the new state of affairs since the war. I also want architectural history. 37 to see the houses, that you all occupy well furnished and 25 well ordered as they were once... Noland & Baskervill, Architects & Engineers In 1897 Noland entered into partnership with Richmond while Noland was in Philadelphia, his former employer, engineer Henry Eugene Baskervill, forming the firm of Theophilus Chandler, advised him that the best way to acquire “Noland & Baskervill, Architects & Engineers.” Noland was the profession was to thirty-two and brought to the partnership six years of go sometime hence into a New York office, where they do experience as a practicing architect plus nine years of more real work, and good work too, in a year than Paris experience apprenticing and working in architectural offices; does in ten. Baskervill was thirty and brought to the firm a degree in Chandler also advised Noland to “go to France and Italy in the electrical engineering plus experience in engineering and summer holidays and sketch and travel.” 26 Noland followed construction. They had both graduated from the Episcopal 38 Chandler’s advice and tried to obtain a position in New York High School together in the class of 1882. with the firm of Richard Morris Hunt. He was not successful— From a prominent Richmond family, Baskervill attended likely because he lacked a university education. 27 By 1888, he Cornell University and received a bachelor’s degree in was working in the New York office of Edward kendall. 28 kendall was among the first generation of American architects to study at the École and in the 1890s became president of the American Institute of Architects. Noland became disenchanted with New York, and by June 1890, he had returned to Philadelphia. 29 Torn between deciding whether to stay in Philadelphia or return to Virginia, Noland eventually decided to return to his native state even though he knew that a career in Virginia might mean more obscurity. 30 Following walter Cope’s advice, Noland began independent practice as an architect in Roanoke, Virginia in 1891. He became discouraged with Roanoke, however, and by 1893 he had moved to Richmond. 31 Unfortunately, 1893 was the year of the financial panic that plunged the country into an economic depression for most of the decade. It was during this period that Noland decided to again follow Chandler’s advice and further his architectural education with a trip to Europe. The trip was for one year: from August 1, 1894 to July 27, 1895. 32 Noland divided his sojourn between England, France, and Italy, and appears to have traveled with his friend, Emlyn Stewardson—John Stewardson’s younger brother, who had joined the firm in 1887 with a degree in civil engineering. 33 Noland made numerous pencil drawings and City Hall, Richmond Virginia, 1900. Library of Congress.

27 electrical engineering in 1889. 39 Afterwards, Baskervill a massive structure of gray granite, picturesquely adorned returned to Richmond and began his career as an assistant city with Gothic towers, gables, and finials. According to engineer. He was listed in Chataigne’s Directory of Richmond Baskervill’s daughter-in-law, the City Hall project sparked his as an engineer as early as 1892. Baskervill was one of five interest in architecture, but his lack of architectural training assistants under City Engineer wilfred E. Cutshaw. 40 The City compelled him to consult library books to perform his duties. 41 Engineer’s Office was not only in charge of paving and grading Cornell’s curriculum for a degree in electrical engineering the roads, but was responsible for all municipal building included a number of courses in mechanical design, but none projects, including schools, markets, armories, and even the in architectural design or history. 42 In 1894, Baskervill drew City Hall. In fact one of Baskervill’s projects at this time was the floorplans for the Howitzer Armory, which was erected by helping Cutshaw manage the construction of the new City the City and completed in 1895. The floorplans still survive Hall, completed in 1894. Designed by Detroit architect Elijah and show that Baskervill was a proficient draftsman. 43 In 1895, Myers, Richmond’s Gothic Revival City Hall was (and still is) Baskervill drew the plans, wrote the building specifications, and superintended the fireproofing of the Davis Mansion, now known as the white House of the Confederacy. 44 The specifications still exist and demonstrate that by 1895, he was also an accomplished specification writer. Baskervill was still an assistant city engineer in 1896, the year before he partnered with Noland. 45 Thus incorporated, Noland & Baskervill inaugurated a new era in Richmond’s architectural history. Patrons no longer needed to go to New York or Philadelphia to find talent, but could now find a local architect who could produce designs comparable to what the Vanderbilts were building in New York. According to Richmond architect Mary Harding Sadler, Noland and Baskervill brought to their work “a knowledge of the highest current architectural standards embodied by the most prominent firms of their time.” 46 By November 1897, the firm had an office on the top floor of the Chamber of Commerce Building –the same rooms previously used by Noland for his own office. 47 Noland, with his years of experience at Philadelphia and New York architectural firms and first-hand knowledge of European prototypes gained from his travels abroad, handled the architectural design work; Baskervill mainly handled the engineering and business aspects. 48 This would have included the structural and electrical engineering, and probably other mechanical systems as well. This division of labor was reflected in the name of the firm: “Noland & Baskervill, Architects & Engineers.” 49 Since Baskervill had experience drafting and writing building specifications, he may have also done some of this work for the firm prior to their hiring draftsmen. Owing to the larger-than-life persona of Thomas Jefferson and the iconic significance of the Virginia State Capitol as the nation’s first classically styled government building, Richmond’s ties to the classical tradition have always run deep. Jefferson’s Capitol was, in fact, one of the two buildings that re-launched Richmond’s tradition of grand classical architecture after the turn of the century. 50 In 1902, a five- member Capitol Building Commission announced a competition for the renovation and enlargement of the Capitol with new flanking wings to house the General Assembly. The three firms chosen in 1904 to undertake the project were John kevan Peebles of Norfolk, Noland & Baskervill of Richmond, and Frye & Chesterman of Lynchburg, effectively linking together the three leading firms in the state. The design of the wings was based upon Peebles’s original design, though with later changes. Because Noland and Baskervill were located in Richmond, they had more responsibility for construction supervision and final details. 51 The building was occupied by January 1906, and the careers of Noland and Baskervill were Top to bottom: Virginia State Capitol, c. 1865, prior to renovation; after renovation and enlargement in 1904 by Noland and Baskervill, secured. architects. New York Public Library; The Capitol building today. Photo The prestige associated with the Capitol renovation was by author. enormous and launched Noland’s career as a society architect.

28 Even before the Capitol was completed, Noland and Baskervill that the largest and most prestigious commissions such as the began to receive hefty commissions for churches followed by Jefferson Hotel and the new City Hall usually went to requests for mansions and country estates by Richmond’s northern architects. One reason was because Richmond did Edwardian elite. During their twenty-year partnership Noland not have many architects. The 1900 Richmond City Directory and Baskervill worked on over 180 projects. 52 Their repertoire listed only twelve other architects—all one-man firms. 59 encompassed a wide range of building types, including Noland & Baskervill was the only partnership. townhouses, churches, office buildings, hospitals, schools, Noland’s and Baskervill’s commissions for houses of commercial buildings, country estates, and even train worship on Franklin Street were Temple Beth Ahabah at 1111 stations. Nearly half of the firm’s projects were residential. west Franklin (1903-1904), Second Baptist Church at 9 west Noland was primarily a classicist. For his religious and Franklin (1904-1906), and St. James Episcopal Church at residential commissions, he employed a wide range of 1205 west Franklin (1911-1913). All three buildings were European and American classical dialects including Beaux- monumental expressions of academic classicism. with their Arts (i.e. French Neoclassical), Colonial Revival, Italian Renaissance Revival, English Baroque, and Roman Classical. Noland was one of the chief promoters of the Beaux-Arts style in Virginia and introduced it as a style for houses in the Richmond area. Noland almost always used classical styles for public and commercial buildings as well as for his residential projects on Franklin Street and Monument Avenue. 53 Cases where Noland departed from the classical tradition included service buildings, buildings on secluded country estates, and projects where he was adding to existing Gothic Revival churches or church complexes. 54 Although Noland and Baskervill designed and remodeled buildings all over Richmond, the largest concentration of these was on west Franklin Street, with twenty-one known projects distributed over a twenty-one block span. 55 Franklin Street was analogous to New York’s Fifth Avenue as the preferred address of the local elite and a setting for architectural display. Richmond’s wealth after the Civil war was derived mainly from the tobacco industry, and as prosperity increased during the 1880s, Franklin Street became the home of bank presidents, factory owners, and railroad barons. In the 1890s, it became the setting of Richmond’s most prominent men’s and women’s clubs and the site of its grandest hotel. The Jefferson Hotel was the first monumental classical building erected in the city after the Civil war. Richmond tobacconist Lewis Ginter hired the New York architectural The Jefferson Hotel, c. 1898. Carr ère and Hastings, architects. Library firm of Carrère and Hastings to design a grand hotel of Congress. comparable to those he had seen during his travels abroad. The hotel they provided appears to have been the first major porticos of giant columns, these sacred edifices imbued expression of Beaux-Arts design in Virginia. The Jefferson Franklin Street with a new classical grandeur. Hotel was begun in 1893, the same year as the Columbian Noland and Baskervill were selected to design the new Beth Exposition, and opened with great fanfare in 1895. The Ahabah synagogue through a design competition held in May gleaming white edifice of the hotel freely combined elements 1903. 60 Beth Ahabah is regarded as one of the finest classically from the French and Italian classical traditions, embellished inspired synagogues in America. It was one of a number of with French Rococo flourishes. The hotel became an instant classical revival synagogues built after the turn of the century. landmark and a symbol of “Richmond reborn.” 56 As a domed classical building, Beth Ahabah had two local Adorned with the Jefferson Hotel, Franklin Street easily antecedents, both by noted architect Robert Mills: eclipsed all other thoroughfares as Richmond’s showplace and Richmond’s Monumental Church (1812-1817) and the old confirmed the city’s place as a leader of the “New South.” The Richmond City Hall (1814-1816). Domes had been popular in phrase “New South” was coined in the 1880s and was a European synagogues and became popular in American popular slogan associated with the spirit of progress which synagogues during the nineteenth century, particularly in accompanied the South’s economic expansion after the Civil Byzantine Revival examples. 61 war. 57 After the war, the South rapidly transitioned from an According to architect Robert winthrop, who knew Harold agricultural, slave-based economy to an industrial-based Calisch, the son of Rabbi Edward Calisch of Temple Beth economy, and began to compete with the North economically Ahabah, Noland’s original design for Beth Ahabah was for a and culturally. Expressing this “new Southern sophistication,” classical temple-form building without a dome. The dome was progressive Virginia businessmen commissioned lavish public added at the request of Rabbi Calisch, who thought it would be and private buildings in the latest styles. 58 more appropriate for a synagogue. 62 However, when one examines the architectural milieu of Noland designed the Second Baptist Church in the form of Richmond during the 1880s and 1890s, it becomes evident a Roman temple in the Corinthian order. Baptist

29 congregations in Richmond had a long tradition of building in London, which in turn drew its basic form and some temple-form churches. The previous Second Baptist Church detailing from Sir Christopher wren’s St. Mary-le-Bow, (1840-1842) by Thomas U. walter had been a Greek Revival London. Noland’s use of the balustrade between the base and temple in the Doric order with a steeple. Noland’s new Second belfry appears to come directly from St. Mary-le-Bow. 64 Baptist Church, however, appears to have been an Noland & Baskervill became Richmond’s most sought-after academically updated and Romanized version of Richmond’s firm for elegant architectural settings in the new classical St. Paul’s Episcopal Church at Grace and Ninth streets, minus taste. A cluster of four neighbors on the 900 block of west the steeple. Built in 1845, St. Paul’s is also a Corinthian Franklin hired them for residential projects. Frederic w. Scott temple, though in this case, Greek Corinthian. St. Paul’s was and E. T. D. Myers Jr. commissioned new houses on adjacent designed by Philadelphia architect Thomas S. Stewart and lots. Next door, Ashton Starke and S. Dabney Crenshaw hired modeled after St. Luke’s Church in Philadelphia, also by the firm to update their 1880s townhouses with elegant Stewart. 63 classical interiors. St. James Episcopal Church forms the focal point of an One of the commissions which best represents Noland’s eastward vista down Monument Avenue. Noland and work is the Beaux-Arts-style residence he designed for Baskervill were selected to design the church in October 1910, Frederic and Elisabeth Scott at 909 west Franklin. 65 and in the initial vote, the congregation favored a Gothic style Designed and built between 1906 and 1910, the exterior of the design. However, after the building committee met with Scott house takes its theme from Marble House in Newport, Noland and heard his preliminary design ideas, the vestry Rhode Island. Marble House had been designed by the École- decided against Gothic. The next month, Noland & Baskervill trained New York architect Richard Morris Hunt for Alva and presented the committee with two classical designs –with and william k. Vanderbilt and completed in 1892. Marble House, without a steeple. They selected the steeple design. Noland’s in turn, drew its inspiration from the Petit Trianon at steeple incorporated elements, such as the corner urns and Versailles. In keeping with the hearty aesthetic appetite of the octagonal belfry, from James Gibbs’ St. Martin-in-the-Fields times (and perhaps his client), Noland embellished the

Clockwise: Second Baptist Church (1904-1906); St. James Episcopal Church (1911-1913); Temple Beth Ahabah (1903-1904); Noland and Baskervill, architects. Photos by author.

30 L to R: Exterior of the Frederic and Elisabeth Scott house (1906-1910); Scott house carriage house (1902). Photos by author.

limestone exterior of the house with sumptuous displays of drawing room was Louis XVI. The den was Italian French neoclassical ornament. Instead of articulating the Renaissance. The library was Tudor, and the dining room front bays of the house with Corinthian pilasters as at Marble Adam. Moreover, Frederic Scott had suites of furniture made House, Noland treated the two bays on either side of the to match the styles of the rooms. The Scott house is one portico as vertical units of stacked decorative elements. with instance where Baskervill is known to have worked with a its classical columns and cornices, the Scott house stood in client on the details of their house; Baskervill and Scott were sharp contrast to the towers and turrets of the Richardsonian friends. 67 It is not known if Baskervill did the same with other Romanesque houses around it. 66 clients. Predating the main house, the 1902 carriage house The interior followed a traditional central hall plan, but drew from the rural vernacular tradition of late medieval with a centrally positioned Imperial stair opposite the French farmhouses and was one of the first examples of the entrance. The wide central hall continued the French Norman Revival in Richmond, if not the first. neoclassical styling of the exterior and opened onto two formal Even grander than the Scott house were the country estates rooms on each side. Following the fashion set by the most Noland designed for both Frederic Scott and Richmond opulent dwellings of the time in New York and Newport, the millionaire Major James H. Dooley on Afton Mountain in the formal rooms were designed as a period room museum, Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The estate Noland designed showcasing the great styles of western architecture. The for the Scotts was Royal Orchard (1911-1917) in Albemarle County. Built of rock-faced stone, Royal Orchard was in a rustic medieval style, complete with battlements. According to the Scott family, Baskervill stayed there the summer it was under construction, sending progress reports to Europe where the Scotts were vacationing. 68 Dooley’s estate, Swannanoa (1911-1913), featured the grandest residence the firm ever designed –a palatial Beaux-Arts-style villa clad in white Georgia marble. Swannanoa has been acknowledged as one of the few Virginia houses that rivaled the Gilded-Age “cottages” of Newport or the vast country places of . 69 Architecturally, Noland combined influences from the Villa Medici in Rome and Richmond’s Jefferson Hotel. Set upon a rusticated base, the façade is marked by a pair of Italianate towers which flank an arcaded center section. The interior features a central hall as at the Scott house, but at a larger scale and with walls of polished polychrome marble. Both houses feature a grand Imperial staircase opposite the entrance, and both were designed to have a luminous Interior Central Hall of the Scott house. Photo by author. stained glass window at the stair landing. The

31 L to R: Detail of the stained glass window by Tiffany Studios at the interior stair landing of Swannanoa, the Dooley estate in Nelson County, Virginia. Exterior of Swannanoa. Noland and Baskerville, architects. Virginia Department of Historic Resources. landing at Swannanoa features a large window by Tiffany; the Another factor that made possible the firm’s success was corresponding window intended for the Scott house was never the fact that Richmond was experiencing a wave of prosperity built. Also like the Scott house, the formal rooms at during the first decade of the twentieth century. The Swannanoa were designed in different period styles –a French depression of the 1890s gave way to a surge in new parlor, a Renaissance dining room, and a Moorish smoking construction after 1900 as Richmond began to transform itself room. Prior to designing Swannanoa, Dooley had also hired into a modern metropolis modeled after New York City. The Noland & Baskervill to design a terraced formal garden and city’s first steel-framed skyscrapers began to rise along Main picturesque outbuildings at his Richmond estate, Maymont. Street at the same time as the first high-rise apartments were Finally, Noland’s Jefferson Davis monument on going up along west Franklin Street near Monroe Park. In Richmond’s Monument Avenue is one of the city’s most well- 1902, Noland & Baskervill served as the consulting known memorials. The structure recalls the tradition of architectural firm for one of these –the Chesterfield Roman victory columns, such as Trajan’s Column, and bears a Apartments, Richmond’s first high-rise apartment tower, at close resemblance to Carrère and Hastings’ 1890 competition 900 west Franklin. Noland and Baskervill were part of a great entry for the Battle Monument at west Point, which also Edwardian building boom, in which classical-style buildings featured a single monumental column topped by statuary in were being built all over the city. 73 front of a colonnaded exedra. 70 A third factor that worked in Noland’s and Baskervill’s One reason Noland and Baskervill may have obtained so favor was the lack of any serious competition –at least locally. 74 many large commissions so quickly –other than their Noland and Baskervill founded their firm at just the right involvement in the Capitol renovation –was because of their moment –as architectural tastes were changing nationwide social backgrounds and connections. They were both from old but before any other academically trained architects had Virginia families and belonged to many of the same social opened offices in the city. Noland & Baskervill appears to have clubs and churches as their clients. Noland led an active social been the only local Richmond firm producing sophisticated life and was well aware of the importance of social networking landmark buildings in the grand classical tradition during the in securing patronage. Noland, Baskervill, and many of their first decade of the twentieth century. clients, were members of the Commonwealth Club, The highpoint of Noland’s and Baskervill’s partnership was Richmond’s most prestigious men’s club. 71 Noland and some in 1907 when they had approximately twenty-four projects. In of his clients were also members of the Country Club of addition to the principal partners, the firm included Virginia, founded in 1910. Additionally, Noland and Scott draftsmen and a secretary. 75 Younger architects, like Marcellus attended St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, discussed previously. wright and Aubrey Chesterman, gained experience in the Baskervill was a close friend of Major Dooley as well as profession by working as draftsmen with Noland and Frederic Scott. 72 Baskervill early in their careers. 76 In 1911, the firm moved into

32 a new office high-rise on Main Street –the Travelers Building, Noland was a leading force behind the founding of the completed in 1910. Noland and Baskervill stayed at this Virginia chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) address for the remainder of the life of the firm. Most of their in 1914 and became its first Secretary and Treasurer. 83 projects were in Richmond, but they also worked extensively According to Noland’s daughter, Cynthia Young, Noland around the state. After 1910, Noland began to explore new had a vision of National prestige for Virginia for he went 77 trends such as the Mediterranean Revival. to England to acquaint himself with the structure of In 1914, at the age of forty-nine, Noland married Miss Mary Britain’s Royal Architects Society. Then he worked to Blecker Miller of Glen Ridge, New Jersey. In July 1917, he establish a Virginia AIA. 84 withdrew from the partnership with Baskervill due to health reasons. It was during this period that Noland acquired an Indeed, in 1906, Noland traveled to London to attend the asthmatic condition that curtailed his professional activities Seventh International Congress of Architects, held at the 85 during the remainder of his life. 78 After his initial bout with headquarters of the Royal Institute of British Architects. illness, Noland recovered enough to open an independent Noland wrote the original by-laws for the Virginia AIA and practice in the Old Dominion Trust Building in downtown organized the first meeting, held at the Jefferson Hotel on Richmond in 1920. 79 September 17, 1914. The four other architects present at the Since Baskervill, who was primarily an engineer, needed a first meeting were Frank C. Baldwin and Philip N. Stern of designer, he formed a partnership with architect Alfred Garey Fredericksburg, and Benjamin F. Mitchell and Clarence A. 86 Lambert, forming the firm of Baskervill & Lambert. 80 The firm Neff of Norfolk. These five were the only members of the AIA designed many notable structures in Richmond, later in Virginia at that time. 87 Noland became president of the becoming Baskervill & Son. Baskervill subsequently became Virginia chapter of the AIA in 1917. 88 known as an architect rather than an engineer. Now known Noland was also instrumental in establishing licensing simply as “Baskervill,” the firm is still one of Richmond’s standards for Virginia architects and was awarded the first leading architectural design agencies. license when state registration of architects was established in 1920. Before this time, anyone in Virginia could call themself William Noland and the an architect, just like today anyone can call themself a Architectural Profession in Virginia designer. Finally, Noland was the first Virginian given the Noland not only helped to usher in a new era in Richmond’s honorary distinction of “Fellow” by the AIA in 1923. 89 Noland architecture but was instrumental in elevating architecture in continued to practice until 1940 at the age of seventy-five. He Virginia from a trade to an organized profession. In fact, he died on August 18, 1951 at the age of eighty-six. 90 It has been said that Noland’s work “equaled that of architects who designed for Newport, Rhode Island or Fifth Avenue in New York City.” 91 Few Richmond architects have left behind such an enduring legacy as william Noland –both in the buildings he designed and in the institutions he established. Noland helped to bring a new sophistication to Richmond’s architecture. He was a principal driving force behind the creation of architects’ associations at both the local and regional levels and the codification of professional licensing standards for architects in state law. Today, the Virginia Chapter of the AIA still celebrates his achievements with its highest honor, the william C. Noland award. By drawing from the architectural traditions of the Old The Chesterfield Apartment House, Noland and Baskervill, architects. The Richmond Times , 1902. world and embellishing Richmond with classical dedicated the latter half of his career to the advancement of landmark buildings, Noland not the architectural profession in Virginia. Noland never forgot only embodied the ideals of the American Renaissance but the ideals of the T-Square Club and the importance of bringing helped to restore the image and dignity of his native state and architects together into a community. He became a member of its capital. the American Institute of Architects in 1901. 81 In 1911, he founded the Richmond Architects’ Association and was h elected its first president. 82

33 Notes 9. “episcopal High School of Virginia Commencement exercises, Wednesday, June 21, 1882 at 2:45 P.M.,” William Noland Papers, 1. This article is a development of my 1996 university of Virginia M.A. VHS, richmond, VA. Noland only attended episcopal High School thesis, “William Noland and residential Design on richmond’s for one year. He was a “first year” student when he graduated. Franklin Street.” I would like to thank Dr. richard Guy Wilson, Dr. Laura Vetter, archivist, episcopal High School of Virginia, phone Charles e. Brownell, robert P. Winthrop, Dale Wheary, and ray interview by author, April 15, 2014. Bonis. robert Winthrop’s 2013 online article on William Noland is 10. Mary N. Woods, From Craft to Profession: The Practice of the most thorough previously published treatment of Noland to Architecture in Nineteenth-Century America (Berkeley: university date. robert Winthrop, “Architects of richmond: William Churchill of California Press, 1999), 66-67, 74; Wilson, The American Noland,”architecturerichmond.com/2013/04/08/architects-of- Renaissance 1876-1917 , 76; Wilson, Making of Virginia richmond-william-churchill-noland/ (accessed February 14, 2017). Architecture , 90. See also John e. Wells and robert e. Dalton, The Virginia Architects, 11. Woods, From Craft to Profession, 53-81; Wilson, Making of 1835-1955: A Biographical Dictionary (richmond: New South Virginia Architecture , 90; Slipek, “The Making of a Profession,” 20. Architectural Press, 1997); edwin Slipek, Jr., “The Making of a 12. Noland probably chose to work in Philadelphia because he had Profession,” Inform 5, no. 3 (1994): 20-27; richard Guy Wilson, relatives there. Mary Young (Noland’s granddaughter), phone “Swannanoa,” in The Making of Virginia Architecture , Charles e. interview by author, March 7, 1996. Brownell, Calder Loth, William M.S. rasmussen, and richard Guy 13. Mother to William Noland, October 5, 1882, William Noland Wilson (richmond: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1992), 342; L. Papers, VHS, richmond, VA. For Theophilus Parsons Chandler, see Moody Simms, Jr., “William Churchill Noland: richmond Architect,” Theodore A. Sande, “Theophilus Parsons Chandler, Jr., 1845- The Richmond Quarterly 3 (Spring 1981): 43-44. Noland has also 1928, the Discovery of an Architect from the ‘Age of excess’” been the topic of two unpublished master’s theses: Christopher (dissertation, Philadelphia: university of Pennsylvania, 1971); Vincent Novelli, “William Noland and residential Design on Sandra L. Tatman and roger W. Moss, Biographical Dictionary of richmond’s Franklin Street” (M.A. thesis, university of Virginia, Philadelphia Architects: 1700-1930 (Boston Massachusetts: G.K. 1996); elizabeth Drake updike, “Henry eugene Baskervill & William Hall & Co., 1985), 139-143; J. Church and B. Laverty, Theophilus P. Churchill Noland: richmond’s response to the American Chandler, Jr., Portrait of an American Architect (exhibition renaissance” (M.A. thesis, university of Virginia, 1987). See also catalogue, Philadelphia: Academy of the Fine Arts, 1986), 166- John Hebble, “St. James episcopal Church: Putting William Noland 168. into Perspective,” symposium paper, VCu Symposium on 14. William emlyn Stewardson, “Cope and Stewardson, The Architectural History and the Decorative Arts, Virginia Historical Architects of a Philadelphia renascence” (B.A. thesis, Princeton Society, richmond VA., November 2011 (Virginia Commonwealth university, 1960), 15; edward Potts Cheyney, History of the university, Cabell Library Special Collections). University of Pennsylvania 1740-1940 (Philadelphia: university of 2. Douglas Southall Freeman, “Henry Baskervill’s Great Service,” Pennsylvania Press, 1940), 312. Richmond News Leader , December 2, 1946. 15. Stewardson, “Cope and Stewardson,” 14. 3. Some local turn-of-the-century publications such as Picturesque 16. John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, ed., American National Richmond confronted this issue on the first page: “An impression Biography (New York: Oxford university Press 1999), 5:478-479; prevails among many persons who reside north of Mason and Stewardson, “Cope and Stewardson,” 15-16. Dixon’s line that when the red flames of evacuation-day laid 17. Stewardson, “Cope and Stewardson,” 18. richmond almost entirely in ashes, that for all time she was to lie 18. William Noland to Mother, January 2, 1886, William Noland with bowed head...No mythological phoenix ever arose from its Papers, VHS, richmond, VA. ashes in more regal splendor than this fair Capital...If you, reader, 19. Adolf K. Placzek, ed., Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects (New are among those who look upon richmond as an overgrown York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1982), 1:450-451; ralph village, we trust the accompanying ‘views,’ taken almost at random Adams Cram, “The Work of Messrs. Cope & Stewardson,” The from various points in her streets, may cause you to come our way Architectural Record 16, no. 5 (November 1904): 407-438; Tatman and see for yourself.” J. L. Hill Printing Company, Picturesque and Moss, Biographical Dictionary of Philadelphia Architects , 165- Richmond (richmond, Virginia: J. L. Hill Printing Company, 1891), 1. 170, 761-762. 4. richard Guy Wilson, “Part I: The Great Civilization,” in The 20. Marie Ann Frank, “The T-Square Club of Philadelphia and the American Renaissance 1876-1917 (New York: The Debate Over a National Style: 1883-1904” (M.A. thesis, university Museum, 1979), 12-13, 45; Sarah Shields Driggs, richard Guy of Virginia, 1991), 14-15; Cope was vice-president of the T-Square Wilson, and robert P. Winthrop, Richmond’s Monument Avenue Club in 1883, secretary and treasurer in 1885, and president in (Chapel Hill and London: The university of North Carolina Press, 1894. Stewardson was president in 1885 and 1891. Frank, “The T- 2001), 26. Square Club,” 17-18. 5. William Noland, “An Architectural Tour” (lecture for the Woman’s 21. William Noland to Mother, January 2, 1886, William Noland Club, December 28, 1896, richmond, VA), William Noland papers, Papers, VHS, richmond, VA. Virginia Historical Society (hereafter cited as VHS), richmond, VA. 22. William Noland to Mother, January 9, 1887, William Noland This is the only writing on architecture by Noland known to exist. Papers, VHS, richmond, VA; William Noland to Mother, March 13, He did not publish. 1887, William Noland Papers, VHS, richmond, VA. Noland 6. “W. C. Noland rites Tuesday in Hanover,” Richmond News Leader , referred to Vignola’s book as “On Architecture” in his January 9, August 20, 1951. 1887 letter noted above; however, the name of Vignola’s book, 7. Noland was the youngest of ten children, five of whom died in originally in Italian, was Regola delli cinque ordini d’architettura , infancy or childhood. Nancy Spreen (Noland’s daughter) to translated in english editions variously as Rules of the Five Orders Christopher Novelli, November 20, 1997. Noland grew up with of Architecture and Canon of the Five Orders of Architecture . three brothers and a sister. Placzek, ed., Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects , 4:312; Bernd 8. In 1878, Noland’s father died of “gout of the stomach” at the age evers, Christof Thoenes, Kunstbibliothek der Staatlichen Museen of sixty-two. reverend Charles Austin Joy, “Airwell,” Virginia zu Berlin, Architectural Theory from the Renaissance to the Department of Historic resources Archives, richmond, VA.

34 Present: 89 Essays on 117 Treatises (Koln: Taschen, 2003), 87-95. 36. His friends called him “Bill,” sometimes “Willie,” and even “Billy.” Noland said in his letter that he was studying from a French Walter Cope to William Noland, January 16, 1891, William Noland edition. This may have been an early edition by French architect Papers, VHS, richmond, VA.; Nancy Spreen (Noland’s daughter) Pierre esquie, titled Vignola: A Treatise on the Five Orders of to Christopher Novelli, March 10, 1996; D. Knickerbacker Boyd to Architecture; An Elementary Treatise on Architecture Comprising H. Van Buren Magonigle, June 11, 1914, AIA Archive, Washington, the Complete Study of the Five Orders (Traité élémentaire D.C. d'architecture, comprenant l'étude complète des cinq ordres ). 37. William Noland, “An Architectural Tour.” See endnote 5. One might speculate that the reason Noland was studying from a 38. “episcopal High School of Virginia Commencement exercises.” French edition was because his employer, John Stewardson, had 39. Baskervill was born on March 10, 1867 in a richmond townhouse loaned him the book, which he had purchased while studying on the 700 block of east Franklin Street –about a block and a half architecture in Paris. west of Capitol Square. His parents were Henry e.C. Baskervill and 23. William Noland to Mother, November 21, 1886, William Noland the former eugenia Jackson Buffington. Like Noland, Baskervill Papers, VHS, richmond, VA. was from an old Virginia family going back to the seventeenth 24. William Noland to Mother, February 13, 1887, William Noland century. “Henry e. Baskervill, 79 Dies; Funeral at 3 P.M. on Papers, VHS, richmond, VA. Sunday,” Richmond News Leader , November 30, 1946. 25. William Noland to Mother, February 27, 1887, William Noland 40. The annual reports for the Office of the City engineer, which listed Papers, VHS, richmond, VA. the officers of the engineering department, only listed Baskervill 26. Theophilus Chandler to William Noland, February 20, 1887, as an assistant engineer in 1895 and 1896. However, he was William Noland Papers, VHS, richmond, VA. obviously working there before then, as the signed 1894 27. Mother to William Noland, September 27, 1887, William Noland floorplans of the Howitzer Armory attest. Perhaps the annual Papers, VHS, richmond, VA. reports did not list junior staff but only “officers.” For both years, 28. envelope: Frank Noland to William Noland, November 27, 1888, he was listed as “temporarily employed.” Annual Message and William Noland Papers, VHS, richmond, VA; edward Kendall to Accompanying Documents of the Mayor of Richmond to the City William Noland, November 14, 1891, William Noland Papers, VHS, Council for the Year Ending December 31, 1895 (richmond: The richmond, VA. Williams Printing Co., 1896), 5; Annual Message and 29. William Noland to Mother, June 29, 1890, William Noland Papers, Accompanying Documents of the Mayor of Richmond to the City VHS, richmond, VA. Council for the Year Ending December 31, 1896 (richmond: O. e. 30. regarding Noland’s decision to locate in Virginia, his daughter, Flanhart Printing Co., 1897), 5; Selden richardson, “‘Architect of Nancy Spreen wrote, “Mom once said that he made a conscious the City’: Wilfred emory Cutshaw (1838-1907) and Municipal decision to return to Virginia even though he knew it would mean Architecture in richmond” (M.A. thesis, Virginia Commonwealth less money and more obscurity.” Nancy Spreen to Christopher university, 1996), 52. Novelli, March 10, 1996. 41. Baskervill’s daughter-in-law, Mrs. H. Coleman Baskerville, said 31. Nelson Noland to William Noland, January 6, 1893, William that he had to check out a book on architecture to perform his Noland Papers, VHS, richmond, VA; Chataigne’s Richmond City duties. Mrs. Henry Coleman Baskerville, interview by Dale Directory , 1893-1895. Wheary, April 1986. Maymont Mansion Oral History and research 32. Merrill C. Lee, “William C. Noland Award Address” (address Files, richmond, VA; robert P. Winthrop, Architecture in presented at a meeting of the Virginia Chapter of the American Downtown Richmond (richmond, Virginia: Historic richmond Institute of Architects, Fredericksburg, VA, October 9, 1970), Foundation, 1982), 238; elizabeth Drake updike, “Henry eugene Cabell Library Special Collections, Virginia Commonwealth Baskervill and William Churchill Noland: richmond’s response to university, richmond, VA. While Noland was in France, he made the American renaissance” (M.A. thesis, university of Virginia, friends and acquaintances with at least five english-speaking 1987), endnote 8. students at the École des Beaux-Arts: George, rutter, Thomas, 42. The Cornell University Register, 1888-1889 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Press of Semple, and Jones. George to William Noland, November 24, Andrus & Church), 123-124. Cornell’s curriculum for a bachelor’s 1895, William Noland Papers, VHS, richmond, VA. degree in electrical engineering was the same as for mechanical 33. Noland’s earliest known drawing in europe was dated August, engineering for the first three years. except for two freshman 1894. Noland started his tour in england. By November, he was in courses in free-hand drawing, the four-year curriculum for France. In 1895, Noland traveled to Italy. Drawings, William electrical engineering was strictly vocational. During his senior Noland Papers, VHS, richmond, VA. Noland’s daughter, Cynthia year, Baskervill worked with steam engines, electric motors, and Young, thought that Noland had traveled with a John Stewardson, telegraph machines. Jr., but since John Stewardson died before he could marry in a 43. Howitzer Armory plans, City of richmond Office of the City tragic skating accident, it was more likely his younger brother, engineer Architectural Plans and Drawings, Folder 4, Library of emlyn Stewardson. Cynthia Young to Christopher Novelli, March Virginia, richmond, Virginia. 1, 1996. 44. Henry e. Baskervill, “Specifications for Fire-Proofing & repairing 34. Forty of Noland’s european drawings are located at the Virginia the Davis Mansion for the Confederate Memorial Literary Historical Society in richmond, Virginia. Most of them are Society” (richmond: The Times Print, March 20, 1895), White renderings of medieval buildings, demonstrating that Noland had House of the Confederacy archives, richmond, VA. a knowledge and interest in medieval as well as classical styles. 45. Annual Message and Accompanying Documents of the Mayor of 35. Someone to William Noland, July 12, 1895, William Noland Richmond to the City Council for the Year Ending December 31, Papers, VHS, richmond, VA; Someone to William Noland, 1896 (richmond: O. e. Flanhart Printing Co., 1897), 5. November 24, 1895, William Noland Papers, VHS, richmond, VA; 46. Mary Harding Sadler, outline for slide lecture, “Maymont explores Caroline Sinkler to William Noland, January 28, 1896, William a richmond Architectural Firm of excellence—Noland and Noland Papers, VHS, richmond, VA. Baskervill,” February 10, 1993.

35 47. “New Subscribers richmond Telephone Company,” (new phone) first richmond architect to partner with an engineer, nor the last. Richmond Dispatch , November 14, 1897. In the 1870s or 1880s, German-born architect Albert Lybrock, 48. Driggs, Wilson, and Winthrop, Richmond’s Monument Avenue , designer of richmond’s Mozart Academy of Music, partnered 177; Wilson, Making of Virginia Architecture , 342; Winthrop, with an engineer by the name of Seibert. They were known as the Architecture in Downtown Richmond , 241. firm of Lybrock & Seibert. Richmond Dispatch , Albert Lybrock 49. The division of labor was also reflected by the fact that Noland’s obituary, January 12, 1886. Architect Claude K. Howell, who obituaries credited him alone for the design of the firm’s projects. designed houses on Monument Avenue between 1906 and 1912 The obituaries for Baskervill only briefly mention his partnership formed a partnership in 1909 with engineer Francis W. with Noland before focusing on his later work with Baskervill & Scarborough that lasted until 1912. Driggs, Wilson, and Winthrop, Son. For Noland, see “W. C. Noland rites Tuesday in Hanover,” Richmond’s Monument Avenue , 175. Richmond News-Leader , August 20, 1951; “W. C. Noland, 86, 60. The Times-Dispatch , May 14, 1903. richmond Architect, Dies,” Richmond Times-Dispatch , August 19, 61. Samuel Gruber, “Synagogues and Temples: Beth Ahabah and the 1951. For Baskervill, see “H. e. Baskervill Dies Here; rites Set at 3 Classical Tradition,” Generations, Journal of Congregation Beth P.M. Today,” Richmond Times-Dispatch , December 1, 1946; Ahabah Museum and Archives Trust 7, no. 1 (May 1995): 1-3; “Henry e. Baskervill, 79 Dies; Funeral at 3 P.M. on Sunday,” Samuel D. Gruber, Synagogues (Hong Kong: Midas Printing Richmond News-Leader , November 30, 1946. Limited, 1999), 106. See also Mary Harding Sadler, “Beth Ahabah: 50. The other building that re-launched the classical tradition in A richmond Architect’s View,” Generations, Journal of richmond was the roman Catholic Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Congregation Beth Ahabah Museum and Archives Trust 7, no. 1 designed and built between 1902 and 1906 by École trained New (May 1995): 3-5. York architect Joseph Hubert McGuire. 62. robert Winthrop worked with Harold Calisch at Glave Newman 51. Wilson, Making of Virginia Architecture , 330; Fiske Kimball, The Anderson, Architects during the early 1970s, when Calisch was in Capitol of Virginia: A Landmark of American Architecture , rev. ed. his eighties. Calisch was working with the firm as a retired part- (richmond, Virginia: Library of Virginia, 2002), 39-41, 66-68. time spec writer. robert Winthrop, phone interviews by author, 52. Spreadsheet of the projects of Noland & Baskervill, compiled by May 29, July 10, August 29, 2014. Baskervill & Son, July 2013. 63. Architecturally, Noland’s Second Baptist Church has much more 53. Noland designed three houses on Monument Avenue: the in common with St. Paul’s than with the Maison Carrée in Nimes, William Whitehurst house at 1832, the Samuel Bachrach house at France or the Madeleine in Paris –most notably a narthex with an 2003, and the Wirt Chesterman house at 2020. indention on each side to allow room for an extra column behind 54. Between 1903 and 1908, Noland and Baskervill added several the front corner columns, thus giving the impression that the buildings to the St. Andrew’s Church complex in richmond’s portico is two columns deep. Oregon Hill neighborhood. The existing church and adjacent 64. Hebble, “St. James episcopal Church,” 3-5; Vestry Book: St. James school were High Victorian Gothic, and Noland followed their Church, VHS, richmond, VA, 128. lead. Noland designed the Arents Free Library and the Visiting 65. Frederic Scott was a prominent financier and co-founder of the Nurses Association Building. richmond investment banking firm of Scott & Stringfellow. The 55. Noland’s and Baskervill’s twenty-one known projects on Franklin presentation drawing for the house was dated 1906; the plan and Street were: Temple Beth Ahabah at 1117 West Franklin (WF), St. elevation drawings were March 1907; and the building James episcopal Church at 1205 WF, Second Baptist Church at 9 specifications were October 1908. The family moved in on WF, the Frederic W. Scott house at 909 WF, the e. T. D. Myers December 10, 1910. Langhorne Gibson, Jr., My Precious Husband: house at 913 WF, the eppa Hunton, Jr. house at 810 WF, the The Story of Elise and Fred Scott (united States of America: Berkeley Apartments at 923 WF, the Chesterfield Apartments at Cadmus Fine Books, 1994), 107. 900 WF (as consulting architects), and the garage of the John 66. The design of the Scott house would have been even more Patteson Branch house at 1 WF. They undertook alterations revolutionary had pink Tennessee marble been used for the and/or additions on the houses of Ashton Starke at 915 WF, S. columns and exterior walls as originally called for in the 1908 Dabney Crenshaw at 919 WF, r. Lancaster Williams at 821 WF, building specifications. See Noland & Baskervill, “General Granville Valentine at 12 eF, S.H. Hawes at 422 eF, A. H. Christian Conditions and Specifications for erection of a residence on at 204 WF, Frederic r. Scott at 712 WF, Mrs. Hugh Campbell at Franklin St. between Shafer and Harrison Sts., richmond, Va., for 1201 WF, Henry W. Anderson at 913 WF, and Samuel T. Morgan Mr. Frederick [sic] W. Scott,” Baskervill & Son collection, VHS, at 111 eF. They also made alterations to the Jefferson Hotel richmond, VA. ballroom and the Commonwealth Club at 401-403 WF. 67. According to Scott’s grandson, Frederic (Freddie) Scott Bocock, 56. John Gibson Worsham, Jr., “Carrère and Hastings’ Jefferson Frederic W. Scott preferred to collaborate with Baskervill Hotel” (M.A. thesis, university of Virginia, 1996); Mark Alan regarding the design details of his new house at 909 W. Franklin. Hewitt, Kate Lemos, William Morrison, Charles D. Warren, Carrère Frederic S. Bocock, interview by Anne Hoffler, April 13, 2004. and Hastings Architects (New York: Acanthus Press, 2006), 1:79- Anne A. Hoffler, “The Frederic W. Scott House (1907-1911): 83; Laurie Ossman and Heather ewing, Carrère and Hastings: The American renaissance Architecture Comes to richmond” (paper Masterworks (New York: rizzoli International Publications, 2011), for ArTH 502, Cabell Library Special Collections, Virginia 74-83. Commonwealth university, richmond, VA, 2004), 11. That 57. Wilson, The Making of Virginia Architecture , 118. Frederic Scott preferred to work with Baskervill regarding the 58. updike, “Henry eugene Baskervill and William Churchill Noland,” design details of the house seems to have created a 13. misconception that Baskervill and not Noland was the principal 59. These twelve other architects were D. Wiley Anderson, edward H. designer. even though Baskervill had experience with drafting and Bissell (landscape), Marion J. Dimmock, Albert F. Hunt, Louis e. a knowledge of construction, his educational and professional Marie, George W. Parsons, Benjamin W. Poindexter, Charles H. background was in engineering, not architectural design. A read, Jr., edgerton S. rogers, Carl ruehrmund, William C. West, second reason for this belief may be that the successor firm of and Peter J. White. It should be noted that Noland was not the Noland & Baskervill, now known simply as Baskervill, has survived

36 and has long been one of richmond’s leading architectural firms. committees that revised the AIA’s schedule of charges. “report of For this reason, the name Baskervill is not only still remembered the Committee on revision of Schedule of Charges, AIA,” The in richmond but is well known. William Noland, on the other American Architect and Building News 92, no. 1668 (December hand, has largely been forgotten. This amnesia regarding Noland 14, 1907): 196-198. has caused more than one writer to erroneously refer to the firm 82. Besides William Noland, the eleven founding members included as Baskervill & Noland, and in one case, Baskervill & Nolan. Henry Baskervill, Marcellus Wright, Charles M. robinson, W. 68. Hoffler, “The Frederic W. Scott House,” 11. Duncan Lee, Albert F. Huntt, W. Lee Carneal, William C. West, and 69. Wilson, Making of Virginia Architecture , 342. According to J. A. Johnston. The Times-Dispatch (richmond: October 4, 1911); Baskervill’s daughter-in-law, during Swannanoa’s construction “Architects Form An Association,” Concrete Age 15 (October Major Dooley sent him to Italy to select marble and to acquire 1911): 26; Membership dues receipt for the richmond Architects garden ornaments and furnishings. Mrs. Henry Coleman Association, October 11, 1912, William Noland Papers, VHS, Baskerville, interview by Dale Wheary, April 1986. richmond, VA. 70. Hebble, “St. James episcopal Church,” 1-2; Hewitt, et al, Carrère 83. This followed two previous unsuccessful attempts by others to and Hastings, Architects , 1:236. Noland’s design won third place establish a Virginia chapter of the AIA in 1890 and in 1900. in the 1896 design competition; however, the first place design According to a brief article in the local paper, a group of five proved too expensive, and Noland’s design was chosen in the richmond architects had met on the evening of January 23, 1890 end. The monument was unveiled during the 1907 Confederate with the purpose of establishing a chapter of the AIA. richmond veterans reunion. Dispatch, January 24, 1890. According to letters in the AIA 71. Membership lists of the Commonwealth Club, richmond City Archives, the AIA tried to establish a Virginia chapter in 1900 but Directories, 1894-1898. The Commonwealth Club had been did not for lack of interest among Virginia architects themselves. founded in 1892 and was located on Franklin Street two blocks Wilson, Making of Virginia Architecture , 128, endnote 11. west of the Jefferson Hotel. Some of Noland’s clients held high 84. Cynthia Young (Noland’s daughter) to Christopher Novelli, March offices within the Commonwealth and other clubs, such as 1, 1996. president. Membership lists of the Commonwealth Club, 85. receipt for subscription to the Seventh International Congress of richmond City Directories, 1894-1898. Noland was also a Architects, London, March 16, 1906, William Noland Papers, VHS, member of the richmond Art Club, of which Major Dooley was richmond, VA; Lee, “William C. Noland Award Address.” president for over a decade. 86. According to architect Merrill C. Lee, who met Noland for the first 72. Henry Baskervill was a pallbearer at Major Dooley’s funeral on time in 1920, “Mr. Noland according to the institute records, Saturday, November 18, 1922. Richmond Times-Dispatch , initiated the calling of this [the first] meeting with previous weeks November 18, 1922. of letter writing. At the meeting Mr. Noland presented a set of by- 73. “Building Boom for richmond,” The Times-Dispatch , January 1, laws which he had previously prepared and [had] accepted by the 1906. except for their five-story Virginia State Company American Institute of Architects. They were adopted. Mr. Noland building at Fifth and Main streets (1903), the firm never also presented a draft of the proposed charter.” Lee, “William C. participated in the flurry of office tower building activity on Main Noland Award Address.” Street. Most of those commissions went to New York firms like 87. “The following were present, all being members of the American Clinton & russell. Institute of Architects and being the only members of the 74. elizabeth updike Jiranek, “Baskervill, Henry eugene,” in Institute in the State of Virginia at this time, viz...” Meeting Dictionary of Virginia Biography , ed. Sara B. Bearss, John T. Minutes 1914-1936, Virginia Chapter AIA, Branch Museum of Kneebone, J. Jefferson Looney, Brent Tarter, and Sandra Gioia Architecture and Design, richmond, VA, 1. Treadway (richmond, 2001), 1:379. 88. Meeting Minutes 1914-1936, Virginia Chapter AIA, Virginia Center 75. Frances Laws was a secretary at Noland & Baskervill. elizabeth for Architecture, richmond, VA. Baskervill and his son, Henry updike Jiranek, “Baskervill, Henry eugene,” in Dictionary of Coleman Baskervill, joined the Virginia chapter of the AIA Virginia Biography , ed. Sara B. Bearss, et al., 1:380. together on May 20, 1930. Meeting Minutes 1914-1936, Virginia 76. Marcellus Wright worked for Noland and Baskervill before Chapter AIA, Branch Museum of Architecture and Design, starting his own firm in 1912. Driggs, Wilson, and Winthrop, richmond, VA. Richmond’s Monument Avenue , 209. Aubrey Chesterman was a 89. Mary Harding Sadler, “Ten Who Made A Difference,” Inform: draftsman in the firm of Noland & Baskervill from 1899 until 1901, Architecture, Design, the Arts 5, no. 3 (1994): 22; AIA Membership when he moved to Lynchburg and partnered with architect file for William Noland, AIA Archives, Washington, D.C. Fellows edward Graham Frye. Bryan Clark Green, “Chesterman, Aubrey,” were chosen by a jury for the first time in 1923, and there were in Dictionary of Virginia Biography , ed. Sara B. Bearss, et al., no written nomination forms. 3:197. 90. Noland died at his home at 316 Oak Lane in richmond and is 77. Designed in 1913, the Mediterranean revival-style Sands house buried in the cemetery of Old Fork Church in Hanover County. at 4711 Pocahontas Avenue was among the first houses erected “W. C. Noland rites Tuesday in Hanover,” Richmond News Leader , in richmond’s Westhampton neighborhood. August 20, 1951. 78. Lee, “William C. Noland Award Address.” Like many fashionable 91. Driggs, Wilson, and Winthrop, Richmond’s Monument Avenue , men of the time, Noland smoked cigars. William Noland to 183. Mother, March 8, 1891, William Noland Papers, VHS, richmond, VA. 79. William Noland to e. C. Kemper, executive Secretary, AIA, December 7, 1920. 80. Wilson, Making of Virginia Architecture , 354. 81. Application for Associate Membership, American Institute of Architects, May 8, 1901, AIA Archive, Washington, D.C. In 1907, Noland served as a minority member on one of the AIA

37 Preservation Diary

The Regilding of Saint-Gaudens’ Diana

Cynthia Haveson Veloric

Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Diana sits, or more literally stands, There was great public fanfare about Diana ’s arrival in at the intersection of fine art and visual culture. Originally Philadelphia. Much would change for her –her site, her located on the tower of the second Madison Square Garden in audience, and her ownership. She transitioned from an New York (1890, demolished 1925), Diana was a glittering outdoor, 350 foot tower, to an indoor, much lower niche in a statue signaling the location of the mega-complex below. 1 museum. On top of the Madison Square Garden tower Diana Prominent architect Stanford white had been hired to design could be seen in the round. Placed against a curtained wall on the Garden at East Twenty-Sixth Street and Madison Avenue, the landing of the Great Stair Hall, she could only be seen from and coordinate its sculptural program. He hired his friend and the front and sides. In this location she could no longer eminent sculptor Saint-Gaudens to create a weathervane pinnacle that would compete in height with the newly constructed world Building. Both artistic masterpiece and an object of material culture, Diana was the embodiment of aesthetic, civic, and commercial ideals. Her popularity as an icon, a social magnet, a romantic vision, and a modern goddess has spanned the late nineteenth through the twenty- first centuries. However, one aspect of her appearance did not endure –her golden surface. Gilt in 1893, she weathered quickly, and for most of her life, including eighty one years at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Diana had been known by her mottled green surface. In 2013 she received an aesthetic and structural overhaul, including a new skin of gold. The recent regilding offers an opportunity to evaluate changing aesthetic tastes, the museum’s agenda on historicism, and public responses to the statue over the last one hundred and twenty years. This brief article focusses on Diana ’s regilding and subsequent viewer reaction. Diana ’s original gold coat deteriorated quickly in the elements. By the first years of the twentieth century the gilding was no longer perceptible from the ground or in photos taken from high vantage points. The copper started to deteriorate as well. Considering the numerous newspaper articles, stories, and general buzz about Diana at the turn of the twentieth century, it is surprising that none of them mention the Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Diana at the Mullins Foundry, Salem, Ohio, 1893. Saint- disappearing gold and there does not seems to Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, New Hampshire. have been a public or private campaign to regild her. However, several museums and private collectors bought function as a beacon. we might concede that Diana lost her smaller gilt bronze versions of the statue from Saint-Gaudens, place as a public icon, but gained in aesthetic stature when including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Diana ’s gilding beheld more closely in a broad niche. The thirteen foot statue, was almost completely gone by the time she was lowered in when placed at the top of a great flight of stairs, and framed by 1925 when Madison Square Garden was demolished. For twin classical columns, still retained an aura of majesty. She seven years she languished in storage until she entered the commanded a privileged position and over time she became a collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. beloved symbol of the museum.

38 L to R: Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Diana atop Madison Square Garden, New York, c. 1900. Diana prior to restoration. Philadelphia Museum of Art.

There is no mention of regilding in the correspondence historically or culturally significant works of art that are in between the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s director, curator, danger of degeneration, including works that have been or the Fairmont Park Art Association who had defrayed costs designated as national treasures.” The conservators’ first task of cleaning and transporting Diana to Philadelphia. Several was to evaluate the physical condition of the statue. Using an factors may have precluded her regilding. She was transferred interior scope, X-ray imaging and ultrasonic thickness testing, during the Great Depression and undoubtedly there was no they determined where the mechanical instabilities were and money for such a project, nor would it have been considered where previous repair work had been performed. Tiny ethically appropriate. In the 1930s there was a vogue for fragments of the original gold leaf were found and saved for Americana and folk art which were visually opposite to the reference. After removing corrosion, grime, primer, and old Gilded Age aesthetic. Most Philadelphians were not even retouching, the conservators treated and repaired the surface cognizant that Diana had ever been gilded. She was to make it smooth. Next they used a yellow paint containing a appreciated as an antique weathervane with a mottled, corrosion inhibitor. This stage was a dramatic one as it timeworn appearance. completely changed Diana ’s appearance into something Diana lived in her natural copper skin for over eighty years. otherworldly. All of these steps led up to the most anticipated Restoration of the statue was on the museum’s agenda a few one –the application of gold leaf. decades ago but there were no funds for it. In 2013, when the Given the debacles over the glaringly bright regilding of the possibility of a conservation grant came to the attention of the Sherman Memorial in New York’s Central Park in 1934 and museum’s senior conservator, he placed Diana at the top of 1990, 2 the task of regilding Diana required caution and his list. To some eyes, the sculpture had receded into its expertise. I was part of the museum’s curatorial team, who, surroundings. Allied with the museum’s goals to activate the along with the conservation team museum did extensive collection, a project to gild Diana would enliven her and the research to determine Saint-Gaudens’ original goals for the Grand Staircase. By reviving her original appearance, she finish. A further complication was that he used a variety of would become more alluring to visitors down below, approaches on other gilded work, and the fact that Diana was something akin to the way she functioned atop Madison now indoors. I found some answers in the correspondence Square Garden. between Saint-Gaudens and white in the Avery Library The museum was awarded a grant from the Bank of archives at Columbia University. we also collaborated with America Art Conservation project, which “provides grants to colleagues from the Gilders’ Studio of Olney, Maryland who nonprofit museums throughout the world to conserve were concurrently restoring the Sherman (the third

39 L to R: Conservators applying layers of 23.4 carat gold leaf to Diana . X-ray imaging of Diana . Application of corrosion-inhibiting yellow paint during the restoration process. Philadelphia Museum of Art. restoration). we shared research and tried to learn from their and let her be what she is now, today. She will be project, though the stresses of Central Park’s outdoor stunning in gold I’m sure. But her historic wrinkles will environment led to different pitfalls and solutions. In be botoxed away. 4 consultation, sample boards were painted, full size casts made Philadelphia Museum of Art Instagram posts documenting and gilded, and then all were placed in situ to be evaluated. the gilding process from June to November 2013 received all Once a decision was made, conservators painstakingly applied positive comments, and hundreds of “likes.” One comment 180 square feet of 23.4 carat gold leaf using both patent leaf indicated that younger, less traditional audiences were paying and loose-leaf methods to achieve the smoothest surface attention to the restoration process, possible. From Saint-Gaudens’ writing, we learned he preferred a matte surface for gilt sculptures at eye level and Great share y’all thanks…the preservation of these pieces 5 used acids and paints for toning down the gold. The is a dope art form in and of itself –appreciate the look.” application of too much or too little toning can wash out Museum Facebook posts from June to November 2013 details and textures, so toning was first tried in the shadowed resulted in mostly positive feedback and nearly a thousand areas only, and then tried over the entire surface. The “likes.” 6 Some noteworthy comments that show public consensus was that the overall toning was most satisfactory. excitement are: The final toning solution was a spray application of gum Arabic and fumed silica. In order to achieve the desired wonderful! Another great example of partnership balance of highlights and shadows over the sensitively between American business and the arts. modelled body, LED lights were strategically directed to these areas and washed over the freshly painted wall behind the Can’t wait to see this –one of my favorite Philadelphia sites. statue. Our professional team is delighted with the results. I was curious to find out if the gilding has given the statue wonderful work to protect Diana . I am so glad that you a new meaning or reception. I began to evaluate the public’s appreciate her beauty and adopted her. She will be reaction in newspaper articles, blogs, Facebook, and marvelous again. Instagram. Shortly after the re-gilding grant was announced in the Philadelphia Inquirer on June 21, 2013, there were several Interesting and thanks to Bank of America for making it 3 posts about Diana on the internet. Most were factual or happen. historical with a neutral or positive tone. Some even included period photos of Diana atop Madison Square Garden. One Conversely, there were some Facebook followers who were not fine art conservation blog, however, disagreed with the happy with the expenditure or the idea of restoration: intervention, what a bad PR move for the museum! Gilt statues are I question whether this is heavy handed. Goddess Diana from the robber-baron era. Take the money and bring art has a history. Let her show off the testimonial conditions education back into the schools, giving some artists jobs

40 teaching children who would love to learn from them. Shame on the Museum.

Tell me it isn’t true! I love her green and always will.

Hoping the bow and arrow is left ungilt. Not sure what was original, but I too like her the way she’s always been. when the gilding and toning were completely finished in summer 2014 the museum posted before and after photos on Facebook. whereas earlier reviews were mostly positive, the “after” commentary indicates that many preferred Diana with her weathered appearance. 7 This reaction has been a component of all of the Saint-Gaudens’ regildings, especially the Sherman . More recent Facebook posts about Diana show enthusiasm about her gilded beauty. 8 The dialogue about regilding continues and is part of the difficulty in recovering a “period look” that is unfamiliar to current eyes. Thus the cycle of taste, aesthetics, and audience perception winds on. In my view the public greatly benefits from the restoration. The gilding stimulates their visual senses; many people have never experienced a blast of 24 carat gold leaf on such a large scale at such close range. They are enticed to learn about Diana ’s history. The restoration, which can now be seen on the museum’s website, is an educational tool elucidating the scientific process of restoring metals and using gold leaf. Diana ’s privileged position at the top of the Great Stair landing, where she is seen by nearly every visitor, symbolically emulates her perch on the top of Madison Square Garden and has enabled her to become an icon of the museum. In a way, Diana ’s regilding brings another kind of symbolism full circle –that of the infusion of corporate money into the cultural sphere, and of an improved economy that allows for such partnerships. Diana ’s renewal points the way to an invigorated museum community. Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Diana, restored. Philadelphia Museum of Art. h

Notes See David W. Dunlap, “A Gilded Monument Is Mysteriously Shedding Its Brand-New Gold,” New York Times , June 18, 2014. 1. elizabeth Lee, “The electrified Goddess,” Nineteenth Century , vol. www.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/nyregion/william-tecumseh- 31, no. 1 (Spring2011): 12-22. sherman-monument-mysteriously-sheds-its-brand-new-gold.html 2. The Sherman Memorial , located in ’s Grand Army 3. All Facebook and Instagram posts were collected and printed by Plaza, was the crowning creation of Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ the author in early 2014 and are available upon inquiry to the career. It was dedicated on Memorial Day 1903. The base was author. designed by Stanford White. The sculptor had the memorial 4. Fine Art Conservation blog, June 25, 2013. double gilded at his own expense partly to avoid the bronze 5. “Great share y’all…” Instagram, November 6, 2013, surface deteriorating and darkening. The first regilding in 1934 instagram.com/philamuseum. did not meet with the approval of Stanford White’s son, who 6. Philadelphia Museum of Art Facebook posts about Diana complained to the NYC Art Commission that the work did not occurred on the following dates in 2013: June 20; July 20; reflect Saint-Gaudens’ original intention for a toned patina. The September 26; October 5, 11, 15, 24; November 6. controversy over the gilding appeared that year in the New York 7. The statue was scaffolded from January to June 2014 during the Times . The 1990 conservation and gilding treatment received regilding. After the reveal, the posts continued on July 20, 26, 28, similar criticism in published letters to the New York Times and 30; August 4 and 21, 2014. Individual posts and comments can be the Art Commission. See Mark rabinowitz, “Gilding the Sherman accessed online at www.facebook.com/philamuseum/photos_or Memorial,” a paper presented at Gilding at the Smithsonian , www.facebook.com/philamuseum/posts then searching the Washington, DC, September 23, 2006. term “Diana” www.conservationsolutionsinc.com/articles/view/5/ 8. The author searched “Philadelphia Museum of Art Goddess gilding-the-sherman-memorial. In 2013 the Sherman underwent Diana” on Facebook on February 6, 2017. an art-historical appropriate, state-of-the-art regilding by the www.facebook.com/search/top/?q= Gilders’s Studio of Olney, Maryland, only to suffer cracking of the philadelphia%20museum%20of%20art%20goddess%20diana gold leaf a few months later. It was regilded in the fall of 2014.

41 The Bibliophilist

Religion, Art, and Money: Episcopalians and American Culture

Peter W. Williams. Chapel Hill: The university of North Carolina Press, 2016.

In American culture of the late nineteenth- and early church, the very institution that the Puritans fled twentieth-century, religion played a central role. The England to avoid. The Protestant New England visitor to any city, town, or village in the United States colonists proclaimed a gospel of simplicity, and will find that the most prominent structures, indeed eschewed anything that smacked of Roman the landmarks, will be churches of many Catholicism. But by the mid-nineteenth century the denominations and many styles. Although today Episcopalians were wealthy and powerful and willing attendance at many of these churches is in decline, to show it. This book charts the rise of Episcopal making the survival of these buildings a major bishops and the construction of grand houses of preservation issue, their architectural grandeur still worship –some were even some called “cathedrals.” speaks to their historical importance. There were different brands of Episcopalism such as Quite clear to any of us who examine the built the “low” or the “broad;” the evangelical; and the landscape is that there was competition between the “high” or Anglo-Catholic (the latter known as “smells different Christian denominations: Episcopal, and bells” for its theatrical services). If, in the Presbyterian, Baptist, Christian Science, Catholic, nineteenth-century, you wanted to climb the social Congregational, and others. Not only did and economic ladder you probably considered denominations compete against each other, but becoming an Episcopalian, or, if you already were one, rivalry occurred within a denomination. within you might move to a more prestigious parish. Other Roman Catholicism, an Italian parish might compete Protestant sects, such as Presbyterianism, also with an Irish parish. Some churches were for the elite connoted wealth and status. If you were Catholic or while the middle- and working-classes would find Jewish, however, you probably were not welcome in other parishes more comfortable. On the exterior, the these houses of worship. williams makes it clear that churches made their statements with size, style, it is no coincidence that in our country, where church towers and materials, and in the interior with stained and state are supposedly separate, the washington glass, murals, tile-work, and pews. National Cathedral is an Episcopalian edifice (the “Taste is not only a part and an index of morality; Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul, chartered by it is the ONLY morality…Tell me what you like, and I’ll Congress in 1893). tell you what you are.” williams includes this 1864 williams’ book is not a survey of Episcopal church quote from John Ruskin, one of the most widely-read design but a selective treatment of some of the English writers of the nineteenth century, to underline important architects and buildings. He begins with the writer’s impact on not only the design of one of the most admired and influential structures, architecture and the decorative arts but his impact on Trinity Church on Copley Square in Boston by H. H. taste. Ruskin stated, in The Seven Lamps of Richardson. Central to the story of this church was the Architecture (1849), that all noble architecture “is in major role played by its rector, the Reverend Phillip some sort the embodiment of the Polity, Life, History, Brooks, who was born Unitarian, but converted and and Religious Faith of nations,” and he equated noble, became a major promoter of “broad” Episcopalianism. nationalist architecture with the Gothic style. His One might argue that Episcopal church architecture opinion had great influence on American architecture, had earlier “fancy” models such as Richard Upjohn’s especially church design. Trinity Church on wall Street (1841-46), and James Although there are many, many books on religion Renwick’s Grace Church on Broadway (1843-46), both in America and a number of studies of churches as a in New York City. williams mentions them but stays building type, Peter williams’ book, Religion, Art, and with his post-Civil war storyline; Boston’s Trinity Money is something different. It is a close study of a Church and Brooks set the model. This is followed by particular denomination –the Episcopal church in the a chapter on Ralph Adams Cram and his partner United States –and a finite time period –the 1860s to Bertram Goodhue highlighting their work at All 1930. The book examines not only the forms of Saint’s Ashmont in the Dorchester section of Boston, Episcopalian church architecture and decoration but St. Thomas on Fifth Avenue and St. Bartholomew on the forces behind these forms: the era’s and the Park Avenue, both in New York City. Cram dominated nation’s social and cultural values. Episcopal architecture and indeed American church As the title of the book indicates, williams is not design through his book Church Building , originally shy about illuminating the ties between art and money published in 1894 followed by many editions. Also and religion, especially among the Episcopalians. The treated is the development of cathedrals including the origins of American Episcopalism lie in the Anglican washington National Cathedral, St. John the Divine

42 (also known as “St. John the Unfinished”) in New York, and These dynasties helped change the United States from a Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Of tremendous help to those culturally and artistically improvised nation (or so they of us that teach is williams’ “typology” of the American thought) into a world power with major collections and cathedral. museums. williams treats a number of major collectors but williams digs into the impact of the “Social Gospel” perhaps the most intriguing are Isabella Stewart Gardner, movement, a now little-known activist episode that gripped George Booth, and w. A. R. Goodwin. Fenway Court, Gardner’s many American denominations in the period after the Civil castle-collection in Boston, is very well known but less war. The Social Gospel attempted to improve the life of understood is her role as a devoted Episcopalian and head of Americans both morally and materially by focusing on social the Alter Guild at Church of the Advent; she helped create an problems, especially poverty, alcoholism, crime, poor housing, Episcopal monastic order, the Cowley Fathers. George Booth, a racial inequality and a host of other issues. The Reverend Detroit newspaper owner, built a huge Arts & Crafts-style william Rainsford at St. George’s in New York City helped the house in the hills known as Cranbook, and founded the art immigrant poor, and George Hodges at Calvary Church in school there that originally was to be religiously-oriented; it Pittsburgh established settlement houses. They exemplified featured an Episcopal church commissioned from Bertram what was called “muscular Christianity,” and their congregants, Goodhue. The Reverend w. A. R. Goodwin, rector at Bruton such as J. P. Morgan (who served on the vestry at St. George’s) Parish Church in williamsburg, Virginia, helped restore that shone by association. A forgotten figure in settlement house building. In the 1920s, even after he had moved on, he work is Ellen Starr Gates, a devoted Episcopalian who, with convinced John D. Rockefeller Jr. and his wife Abby Aldrich to Jane Addams, co-founded Hull House in Chicago in 1889. All of fund the enterprise that became known as Colonial these individuals and many more were “Progressives,” and williamsburg. The Rockefellers, it should be noted, were made a major impact. williams also discusses the founding of originally Baptist, but much of their religious philanthropy was many schools. Some were for the downtrodden, but he focuses conducted through the Presbyterian church. on the elite prep schools and their great architecture. The works Peter williams has produced a fascinating book, built on of Henry Vaughn, an English émigré architect who was one of decades of research. It makes the church-goer or church-visitor the initial co-designers of the washington National Cathedral, realize that behind the stained glass, the tile on the floor and are described, including the grand chapel at St. Paul’s in the elaborately carved pulpit that there are many stories of Concord, New Hampshire, and the imposing chapel at Groton designers, architects and many lay, clergy and institutional School for headmaster Endicott Peabody. patrons. The chapter “The Gospel of wealth and the Gospel of Art” describes the tremendous impact of wealthy Episcopalian Reviewed by Richard Guy Wilson families such the Morgans, Fricks, Vanderbilts and Astors.

Victoria, The Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire

Julia Baird. New York: random House, 2016.

with pleasure I write this review of new scholarship Victoria, giving us a picture of a feminine lady who on a familiar topic: Queen Victoria. This excellent could barely speak without stumbling, a wife who biography is the result of diligent research in primary deferred all decisions to her husband, and who grieved documents by Julia Baird, an Australian journalist. his death forever—all untrue according to Baird. As Ms. Baird braved daunting secrecy at the royal Prime Minister Gladstone said, “The Queen alone is archives at windsor Castle, where material more than enough to kill any man.” a century old was fiercely guarded. This book reveals a But her strength was not apparent at the beginning picture of Victoria’s relationships with her family and of her reign. Of Victoria’s six uncles, three were in the the companions of her widowhood, her character as line of royal succession and would have claimed the mother and queen, and her struggle to balance work throne if they could. A particular worry was her uncle and family while political forces demanded her Ernest Augustus, next in line, who coveted the throne leadership. At age 18 she was called to rule a quarter of and inspired deep apprehension. Baird writes that he the world, and she did so for over sixty years, during was “...the subject of great fear and gossip due to his an era of discovery and change. scarred face and reams of unproven rumors that he The year of her death, her grandson kaiser had bedded his sister, sexually harassed nuns, and wilhelm II and her youngest daughter and executrix, murdered a valet.” Victoria’s widowed mother Princess Beatrice, tasked Arthur Benson and Lord provided close protection by sleeping in the young Esher with “editing” Victoria’s extensive queen’s room for a period. correspondence with the exception of the voluminous with the help of the first of her nine Prime archive Beatrice sent up in smoke. (For this crime Ministers, Lord Melbourne, the young queen emerged scholars have never forgiven her.) This team sanitized from a sheltered childhood and learned to govern.

43 After four years she succumbed to forces wishing her to marry “Bertie,” her first son had been a disappointment to her, and which coincided with the unexpected event of falling in love Victoria intended that he not be given any responsibilities. with her cousin Albert from Coburg. Albert shared half her life Nevertheless, upon her death he ascended the throne as and reigned in effect while she bore nine children. During that Edward VII. His own son, George V, began a direct line through time, they worked together companionably at the same desk Edward VIII and George VI to Elizabeth II. though they were not above shouting at each other in domestic Ms. Baird restores to the record the Queen’s relationships and regal disputes. Albert’s contribution is honored here with with the two men whom she spent time with during her 40 affection. years of widowhood. Albert’s equerry, John Brown, was a tall, Their children were born almost annually. Baird describes strong man capable of hoisting Victoria’s increasing weight the queen entertaining them in the nursery, playing games with upon her horse and then riding out with her through the them, and simply enjoying them. For me this paints a pretty countryside. Her children called him “the Queen’s stallion.” picture, not only of the palace nursery, but of England, which Baird also details Victoria’s relationship with her Indian has produced so many endearing images of childhood, secretary or munshi , Abdul karim, who made curries for her. especially in Victoria’s era. There is space in these 500 pages to detail everyone Many of the children grew up to occupy thrones throughout marching across this stage –enough to delight any reader with Europe. Her firstborn and namesake married Frederick of this compelling portrait of the figurehead of our organization. Prussia. Their first child, wilhelm, suffered a withered, useless arm as a result of a breach birth. Baird believes that he Reviewed by Jo Anne Warren concealed and compensated for this birth defect, and hated his mother forever because of it. As kaiser, he made war on his grandmother’s country.

New and Noteworthy

William Merritt Chase: A Modern Master

elsa Smithgall, erica e. Hirschler, Katherine M. Bourguignon, Giovanna Ginex, and John Davis. Washington, New Haven and London: The Philips Collection and Yale university Press, 2016.

As might be expected from a catalog of a major Bourguignon’s topic, citing eye-witness accounts of retrospective exhibition, this book provides a good students and patrons; Guy Pène du Bois likened Chase overview of the work and career of william Merritt to a fencer as he “attacked the large canvas furiously.” Chase; less expected, it offers much more. The Davis demonstrates that early in his career Chase overview is is accomplished through capsule established an international reputation and a life-long summaries of different phases of the painter’s career, following by exhibiting stylistically diverse works in a detailed chronology, and 88 spectacular full-page major avante-garde exhibitions in , Paris and color plates. The five essays contained in the book go Brussels. Fresh from studies in Munich, Chase spent a beyond this survey, giving us glimpses into new formative year in Venice and returned to it thirty-five scholarship on the painter and placing him squarely in years later as a teacher. Ginex’s essay demonstrates an international context. Smithgall presents Chase as that the artist remained connected to the city his a crusader in the United States by adopting the entire life, by buying the work of contemporary and modern (especially French) attitude that put much old master Venetian artists and adopting their subject emphasis on aesthetics and very little on subject matter and artistic devices in his own work. This matter. One painting entitled Just Onions shows that catalog demonstrates that it took the experiences of in Chase’s hand, a group of onions and pottery is European people, places and art to make Chase the enough to make a daring picture. Hirschler consummate cosmopolitan American artist he demonstrates that Chase built something new upon became. the armature of the old masters, using their compositions, coloration and brushwork to paint the Reviewed by Karen Zukowski new woman. Chase’s “performative” teaching is

44 The Gilded Age in New York, 1870-1910 esther Crain. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2016.

This large-format compilation of images from Gilded a vague manner. For example, a color photograph of Age New York straddles the terrain between picture the aftermath of snowstorm is captioned as showing book and history book, but does so precariously. The Broadway between Twenty-Ninth and Thirtieth Street author publishes a wonderful blog, “Ephemeral New in 1905. Skeptical about a color photograph taken in York” that posts and captions photographs, the depths of winter in 1905, I examined the scanty illustrations and the occasional ad drawn from photo credits at the back of the book, and learned that newspapers, archival sources, and twenty-first this image comes from the Library of Congress and century media such as Google Street View. She evokes was colorized by Sanna Dullaway. Hmmm; dramatic the ever-changing city with this shorthand form of effect over historical accuracy. Similarly, the essays documentation. But not everything that works so well are compilations of colorful details drawn from ill- in the blog transfers to a book. The Gilded Age in New cited period sources, strung together with some very York, 1870-1910 organizes its hundreds of images and basic historical narrative. To be sure, I found very few captions into nine chapters, on such topics as “A City errors in the text or captions. Rather than of Newcomers” and “The City at Play and at Rest.” proofreading the book, I let myself be captivated by Each chapter includes text organized as a rough the profusion of pictures and the wealth of incidents. chronological narrative interspersed with shorter Crain has uncovered so many fascinating images and vignettes on specific incidents. The images are put them together into such a sensible framework that marvelous, ranging from woodcuts published in the I cannot demand more. This is a book to be pored over burgeoning illustrated press, to colored lithograph but perhaps not swallowed whole. advertisements to all kinds of professional photographs. The captions always describe the subject Reviewed by Karen Zukowski depicted, but often only cite the source of the image in

Daniel Chester French: The Female Form Revealed

David B. Dearinger. Boston: The Boston Athenaeum, 2016.

This is the catalog for an exhibition held at the Boston energetic woman, often in motion; and “poetic” – Athenaeum focusing on female allegorical and works in which the form seems to completely embody symbolic sculpture by Daniel Chester French. Full the allegory. Using photographs of finished disclosure: the curators of the exhibition, Donna monuments, as well as plaster casts and rarely-seen Hassler of Chesterwood, French’s home and studio in preparatory maquettes from Chesterwood, Dearinger Stockbridge, MA, and David Dearinger, the curator of demonstrates how French worked with the female the Boston Athenaeum, were fellow classmates of form, clothed and unclothed, to embody ideas. Thus, mine in graduate school and remain friends and for example, we can see how French’s maquettes for colleagues. The two are experts in American sculpture, the monumental sculptures depicting the four and as the introduction states, they want to make a continents for the United States Customs House in “fresh scholarly investigation” of French’s process of New York City went from barely-differentiated conceiving and realizing allegorical forms through the lumpen forms with appendages to fully-realized female body. I am confident that a less biased critic ethnic types dominant over their accompanying would agree that this catalog, with the essay by staffage of people, animals and art. Dearing touches Dearinger, delivers on its promise. while upon issues of racial profiling, stereotyping, and acknowledging that his categories are intertwined, misogyny inherent in making the female form stand- Dearinger places sculpture from all periods of in for allegorical ideas, but does not dwell on them. French’s career into one of five groups: Such brief treatment is excusable in this catalog, “classical” –symmetrical, balanced forms showing which is a mere 70 pages long. we come away with a serious expressions; “baroque” –in which the good understanding of French’s process and product, symmetry and balance of the classical is enriched by and most probably, the same kind of enjoyment symbolic attributes, such furniture and animals; French and his patrons took in the female form. “emergent” –in which the form literally emerges from the background; “exuberant” –works that depict an Reviewed by Karen Zukowski

45 Editorial

(e) (ducare)

Sitting around the Faculty Lounge this past winter (while wearing one of my other hats) a fellow design teacher taught me something I never knew. He said that the entomological root of ‘educate’ is ‘to draw out’. I was surprised. Surprised I never knew this and surprised that the root of educate did not mean drilling in. what a wonderful idea that in teaching we are there to draw out ideas, knowledge, experience and thought that already dwells –perhaps not yet connected to their consciousness –within the students. The reservoirs are just there to be tapped.

At Nineteenth Century magazine, we also seek to draw out and make meaningful that which was already there. Each article in this issue represents a new corpus of knowledge based on tapping into disparate sources and bringing them together here. Some of these are actual discoveries and others bring to light buried treasures.

In these perilous times it is nice to be reminded that language still has meaning and words still do have power.

Warren Ashworth

1-800-894-1105 Errata

Quality time begins here. Vol. 36, No. 2: p. 18, “none of the artists had studied the birds from life,” to “none of the artists had studied the birds from life in South America .”

p. 22, “He had traversed the Atlantic...”

p.23, footnote 37, “The set of hummingbird pictures in the collection of richard Moogian (now in the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art) ....But this set may not be the Peto group.

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46 Milestones

A Penny for Your Thoughts

Anne-Taylor Cahill

How much would you pay to receive a letter by post? In the teaspoon and its value in pawn could have kept her family fed U.k. prior to 1840 it involved an exorbitant fee. Oddly, the for two months. Pamphlets and posters demanding cheaper sender of the letter did not pay the postage; the recipient paid. postage rates began to circulate. Emotions ran high. To pre-pay a letter was considered a social slur on the receiver. Reformers went so far as to declare the postal system “wicked” The implication being that one was too poor to pay. Thus to because it kept apart families separated by distance. Postal receive a letter required some financial wherewithal. If the fees were a threat to the family and thus to the Empire itself! receiver could not pay the letter was returned to the sender. Happily, reformers like Sir Rowland Hill, pushed through a Sadly, this was all too common. reform agenda in Parliament and in 1840 the Penny Post was For the working classes, postage often cost a full day’s pay. born. Now for just a penny a letter of half an ounce could go There were stories of mothers sending children to the local anywhere. The family and the Empire were saved! with the pawn broker to sell a few items of clothing to obtain sufficient new rules letters were to be prepaid using the Penny Black funds to pay for adhesive stamp. The receiving a letter. Often Penny Black was an the word ‘dread’ was elegant black stamp used in relation to with the bust of the receiving mail. This was young Queen Victoria. not only because of This stamp was high postage fees but introduced May 1840, also because people the month of Queen usually did not send Victoria’s 21 st birthday. mail for frivolous The new system was reasons. Illness, death a smashing success. or some other tragedy The volume of mail were the usual reasons increased 120% in just to send mail making 3 months. Moreover, a “no news is good news” new industry of “postal a popular expression. accoutrements” sprang On the other hand, up. Stamp boxes, letter various methods of holders, lap desks, and postal fee evasions were L to R: The Penny Black stamp, postal reformer Sir Rowland Hill. myriad books on how developed. Clever young to write a proper letter romantics sending a love letter could make various designs became the rage. So pleased with themselves about their new such as hearts and sunshine on the cover of a letters so that the endeavor, the English included all of their “postal beloved would know that he/she was well and still loved the accoutrements” in the Great Exhibition of 1851 at the Crystal receiver. with peace of mind, the receive could refuse the Palace. letter yet still get the message. h Another method of avoiding postage was the use of franking. Franking was simply the use of one’s signature on a For further reading: letter cover to pay the postage. Only the Queen and members of Parliament were allowed this privilege. Yet often people Catherine J. Golden would write the name of any MP on their envelope and their Posting It (2009). letter was promptly delivered free of charge. Eventually, the General Post Office caught on and kept copies of all MP Douglas M. Muir signatures so that franked letters could be verified. Postal Reform and the Penny Black (1990). Sad tales, such a pawning clothes and other similar stories Eleanor C. Smyth began to create a clamor for cheaper postage. Perhaps the Sir Rowland Hill, the Tory of a Great Reformer saddest story is that of a woman whose husband was in jail. He (1907). sent his wife a letter; she could not pay. The postmaster accepted her silver teaspoon as payment. It was her only silver Note: Eleanor Smyth was Sir Rowland’s daughter

47 The Victorian Society in America

PreSIDeNT DIreCTOrS Kevin Rose , Springfield, OH Warren Ashworth, New York, NY Cindy Casey, San Francisco, CA PAST PreSIDeNTS Janice Hack, Chicago, IL John J. Simonelli , Paterson, NJ Sylvia Johnson, Akron, OH Tina Strauss, Deerfield, IL Michael Lewis, Philadelphia, PA Bruce Davies, Victoria, BC Barbara J. Mitnick, Philadelphia, PA Patricia Pixley, Omaha, NE Gerald Peters, Silver Spring, MD John J. Simonelli , Paterson, NJ Charles J. Robertson, washington, DC Billie S. Britz (1925-2013) Jaclyn Spainhour, Norfolk, VA Guy Lacy Schless, M.D. (1929-2011) Frampton Talbot, New York, NY Richard Hubbard Howland (1909-2006) Karen Zukowski, New York, NY William J. Murtagh,PhD, Sarasota, FL Henry-Russell Hitchcock (1903-1987) eMerITI J. Steward Johnson (1925-2006) Patrice K. Beam (Director), Davenport, IA Donald H. Bergmann (Director), St. Louis, MO eXeCuTIVe VICe-PreSIDeNT C. Dudley Brown (Director), washington, DC John J. Simonelli , Paterson, NJ William J. Murtagh, Ph.D. (President), Sarasota, FL Marilyn Tuchow (Director), , MI Sallie Wadsworth (Director), Brookville, IN VICe-PreSIDeNTS William Ayres, New York, NY Anne-Taylor Cahill, Norfolk, VA ADVISOrY COuNCIL Patricia Eldredge, Hudson, OH Christopher Forbes, New York, NY Sibyl M. Groff, New York, NY SeCreTArY Sally Buchanan Kinsey, De witt, NY Bruce Davies, Victoria, BC Pauline C. Metcalf, New York, NY Sandra Tatman, Philadelphia, PA TreASurer Richard Guy Wilson, Charlottesville, VA Robert Chapman, Montclair, NJ NATIONAL OFFICe STAFF SuMMer SCHOOL DIreCTOrS Susan Verzella, Business Manager, Philadelphia, PA Richard Guy Wilson, Newport Summer School Anne Mallek, Summer School Administrator, Joanna Banham, London Summer School worcester, MA Elizabeth Leckie, London Assistant Director Tina Strauss, Chicago Summer School Co-Director John Waters, Chicago Summer School Co-Director

Special Membership is also available in the Alumni Association Chapter for participants in the Society’s summer schools.

The Victorian Society Chapters For information on chapter membership, Falls Church, Virginia • Greater Chicago write to the national office: Hoosier (Indiana) • Michigan • New england 1636 Sansom Street Northern New Jersey • New York Metropolitan Philadelphia, PA 19103 Ohio river Valley (Cincinnati Area) or email Savannah, Georgia • S t. Louis, Missouri [email protected] eloise Hunter, Norfolk, Virginia • Washington, D.C.

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